Canglangting (Surging Wave Pavilion) Garden is located at Canglangting Street in the south of Renmin Road. It is one of the four most famous gardens in Suzhou, the others being the Shizilin (Lion Grove Garden), Zhuozhengyuan (Humble Administrator’s Garden) and Liuyuan (Lingering Garden).
The garden is widely believed to be the most romantic garden due to the descriptions in Six Chapters of a Floating Life, an extraordinary blend of autobiography, love story and social document written by Shen Fu of the Qing Dynasty.
Built in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), Canglangting Garden is the oldest among the existing classical gardens in Suzhou, and is the only one named after a pavilion.
The garden features well-arranged man-made hills and waters. There are elegant stone bridges over the stream winding through the garden, and the square Surging Wave Pavilion stands at the top of a hill.
