Grand View Garden in Shanghai　上海大观园

The Grand View Garden in Shanghai, at No. 701, Qingshang Highway in Qingpu District, is located by the Dianshan Lake. Its construction began in 1979 and lasted nine years, with a total area of 9 hectares. The garden employed all the artistic skills and techniques in traditional Chinese gardening, perfectly reviving the Grand View Garden in the classical Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. It embodies both the grand and luxurious style of the northern gardens and the elegant and exquisite sentimental tone of the southern gardens. Adapted to the local conditions and showing originality, the garden has the courtyards and houses, furniture, couplets and horizontal boards built on the basis of the original novel, accurately reflecting the temperament, knowledge in life and rules of conduct of the garden owners. The Grand View Garden in Shanghai has won national and municipal prizes and awards repeatedly over the years. It has been graded as a national AAAA tourist area and a five-star park in Shanghai. It has been chosen as the best place for making movies and TV plays, domestic and foreign, for its beautiful scenery. Ever since it was open to the public, it has received 16 million visitors. Major scenic spots include the Screen Wall, the Grand View Building, the Yihong Compound, the Xiaoxiang House, the Hengwu Compound, the Qiushuang House, the Daoxiang Village, the Lixiang Compound, the Longcui Nunnery, the Hongxiang Garden, the Qingyun Pagoda, etc. The Grand View Garden is characteristic of an orderly arrangement of houses, a dense shade of green trees, a dazzling view of the rippling pond, and a cluster of exotic rocks. It is rich in flowers all the year round: the peach blossoms in spring, the lotus flowers in summer, the osmanthus flowers in autumn and the plum flowers in winter. The screen wall, about 3 meters high and 7 meters wide, and together with the two wing walls covered with carved peonies, extends over 17 meters wide. Facing south on the screen wall is the granite relief carving of Nuwa Patching the Sky and Baoyu Descending to the World. On the back of the screen wall is the marble relief carving of the 12 girls of Jinlin. The Grand View Building is the most important architecture at the center on the north of the lake. It is a twin building of two rows with two wing houses. The horizontal board bearing the four Chinese characters Gu En Si Yi expresses the meaning of highly appreciating the imperial benevolence and kindness. This is the place where Yuanchun got accommodated in her first visit home as an Imperial Concubine and she received the respectful kowtow from the family members. The rear hall is where Yuanchun paid homage to the elders of the family. The Yihong Compound in the west of the garden with Chinese crab trees and hardy bananas on both sides of the courtyard vaguely reveals Jia Baoyu's elegance and feminine sentiments. The Jiangyun House is where Granny Liu saw the reflection of an old woman with lots of flowers on her head after she got drunk and intruded into the room. In the east of the garden there used to be a cluster of bamboos, quite harmonious with the environment of the Xiaoxiang House; consequently, the Yihong Compound was moved to the current location. The east room is Lin Daiyu's bedroom. The side table with Chinese medicine pots and bowls and the charcoal stove on the floor clearly demonstrate the tragic scene of Daiyu, though very ill, burning her manuscripts. To the north of the Xiaoxiang House is the Daoxiang Village, where Li Zhi dwelled after becoming a widow. With a rural cottage of the earthen walls as well as a well with a pulley, it is a typical scene of water countryside.

Meiwu Plum Garden by the side of the Dianshan Lake has over 4000 plum trees of more than 30 species. A nice place to enjoy plum flowers, it is one of the top four plum gardens in the region south of the Changjiang River. The other three are the Chaoshan Hill in Hangzhou, Xiangxuehai in Suzhou, and Meiyuan Garden in Wuxi. And to the south of Meiwu Plum Garden is the Fragrant Osmanthus Garden, in which there are more than 3000 osmanthus trees. It is a nice place to enjoy the osmanthus flowers in mid-autumn.

During Shanghai Tourism Festival every year, the Grand View Garden in Shanghai holds the unique Red Chamber Art Festival.

Address: No.701, Qingshang Highway, Qingpu District

Tel.: 021-59262831

Open Hours: 8:30-16:30