Dongguan︱Keyuan Garden

Keyuan Garden

You are wrong about Dongguan if you think this city is all about factories and forts – there are elegant Chinese gardens here too! Given the long history of Dongguan, it is not a surprise that Dongguan has Lingnan-style gardens. Keyuan Garden, located in Dongguan, was one of the four great Lingnan gardens of the Qing dynasty.

Keyuan was built by a Dongguan local Zhang Jingxiu and the garden was his residence too. Although he was from the military, he loved arts and culture, particularly the Lingnan garden culture. Keyuan features one palace and three bridges, five pavilions and five pools, six platforms and six lofts, and fifteen rooms and nineteen halls. Most of them were named with “ke”, meaning “to be able to”. It was built entirely with blue bricks. The most notable feature of Keyuan is the design of “miniature woods” which “concentrate” Mother nature in a limited space but with paths extending in all directions. 

Zhang Jingxiu also combined Sun Tzu's Art of War and the elegance of literature into the architecture. He even adopted part of the Eight Elements Battle Formation by Zhuge Liang to create a maze-like effect. When you visit Keyuan Garden, remember to follow the instructions so that you won't get lost!