Shanghai Grand View Garden

The main gate of Shanghai Grand View Garden stands on Qingshang Highway.

Walk straight along the main avenue; when you reach the end, turn right, then keep going. The ticket office is on the right. If you bought tickets online, you need to exchange them here.

Follow the path and soon you’ll spot the ornamental archway from afar.

A 8-meter-tall archway rises in front of the square, with a plaque reading “Land of Illusion” hanging above. Its column bases are lotus-carved Sumeru pedestals, topped with dougong brackets characteristic of traditional Chinese timber architecture. The four large characters on the upper central plaque declare “Land of Illusion”—“Taixu” meaning sky or the void, and “Huanjing” a dreamlike fairyland.

The Nuwa Remnant Stone is a giant screen wall 18 meters wide and 10 meters tall. Its center features a granite relief, flanked by grey-brick carved wing walls. In garden design, this wall serves to set off the scenery and block views, while the carved inscriptions on it achieve a finishing touch effect. The huge granite relief in the middle consists of four panels, vividly encapsulating the origin story of *Dream of the Red Chamber*.

At the top of the screen wall is a panel named “Nuwa Mends the Heavens,” a reclining image of the goddess Nuwa. Her flowing hair transforms into rivers, her body into mountains—she becomes the Earth Mother of mythology. To the left are the moon palace jade toad and a serpent coiled around a star; to the right, a leftover sun from when the archer Houyi shot down the suns.

On the back side is a large white marble relief—“The Twelve Beauties of Jinling.” In the center stands the goddess Disenchantment, holding the Register of Ill-Fated Maidens in one hand, the other slightly lifted, pointing toward Daiyu and Baoyu beside her, on the verge of speaking. Starting from the far left is the nun Miaoyu, with her lamp-lit old temple, spotless as white jade, yet wrongly accused. Second from left is Li Wan, leading a quiet, chaste life in Paddy-Sweet Village. Third is Wang Xifeng, “Peppercorn Feng.” Fourth is the lively, outspoken Shi Xiangyun, full of a boyish spirit. Fifth is Qiaojie, Wang Xifeng’s daughter. Sixth is Qin Keqing, wife of Jia Zhen. On the right side, the first figure is the dignified imperial consort Jia Yuanchun. Second from right is Jia Xichun, unrolling a painting of the Grand View Garden, lost in thought, eventually seeing through worldly vanities. Third is Jia Tanchun, with untapped great ambitions. Fourth is Jia Yingchun, wiping tears with her handkerchief, who was wrongly married to a brute and suffered greatly. Fifth is Xue Baochai, holding a fan to her chin and casting a sidelong glance at Jia Baoyu. Opposite Baoyu is Lin Daiyu, half-turned but glancing back, her eyes brimming with tender affection.

The main gate is a five-bay entrance hall, with a gilt plaque reading “Grand View Garden” overhead. In front of the gate stand a pair of Qing Dynasty Qianlong-era bluestone lions.

A pair of 2.5-meter-tall Qianlong-period bluestone lions crouch imposingly at the entrance.

“A Winding Path to Seclusion”: the first scenic spot inside the gate, also serving to screen the whole garden. This is a rockery built with over 3,000 tonnes of Taihu Lake stone, lying horizontally behind the main gate. It stretches about 90 meters east to west, rises to 5 meters, and extends nearly 20 meters in depth. Inside are winding caves that twist up and down. On the hilltop stands a round pavilion, surrounded by dense forests and draped vines veiling the grottoes. Behind the hill lies a shimmering pond; the rockery stands by the water, forming a landscape of hill and stream.

A round pavilion crowns the hilltop; the hill bears deep woods, with creepers draping over caves and gullies.

Behind the hill, a stretch of turquoise pond water; the rockery hugs the water’s edge, creating a classic landscape feature.

Beside the Peony Pavilion spreads a grove of sweet osmanthus.

There are golden osmanthus, silver osmanthus, orange osmanthus, and even a century-old osmanthus tree.

Across from the osmanthus grove stands a 300-year-old ginkgo tree.

Now we come to “Happy Red and Delightful Green”—Jia Baoyu’s residence in the garden, the Court of Happy Red. The complex covers 899 square meters. It is a two-wing, three-courtyard compound built for Jia Baoyu. The entrance is marked by a gate inscribed with the four characters “Happy Red and Delightful Green.”

The phrase originates from *Dream of the Red Chamber*, the name of the plaque in Baoyu’s courtyard. He had planted crabapple and plantain there, so he inscribed “Red Fragrance, Green Jade”—red for crabapple, green for plantain. During Consort Yuan’s home visit, it was changed to “Happy Red and Delightful Green,” implying that the crabapple and plantain gladden the heart and lift the spirits, from the chapter “Talented Testing of Plaques in the Grand View Garden; Yuanchun’s Splendid Homecoming on Lantern Festival.”

Upon entering, to the right you see crabapple, to the left plantain and Podocarpus. The crabapple is red as though rouged, delicate as an invalid; the plantain leaves are so broad one could write on them—the saying goes, “when writing is done on plantain, the text remains green.” This was the garden master’s deliberate design to emphasize the master’s somewhat effeminate yet scholarly air. “Planting a Podocarpus is also a metaphor for Jia Baoyu’s ultimate fate.”

The main building is a three-bay hall, with front and rear wing rooms, winding covered corridors, and a side garden, plus a charming back garden built at the rear of the compound.

“Crimson Rue Studio” is Jia Baoyu’s living quarters, the main hall of Happy Red Court. The east room is his bedroom, the west rooms those of his maids Xiren and Qingwen, and in the center stands a jade-carved floor screen, with a large mirror on its back. It was through this back door and mirror that Granny Liu drunkenly stumbled into Happy Red Court.

Happy Red Court’s “Spiritual Understanding Study” is where Baoyu composed poems, painted, played chess, and received guests.

“Thousand Reds in One Grotto” lies behind the Spiritual Understanding Study—a waterside pavilion structure.

In front stretches a pond, with covered corridors on either side bridging the water.

In autumn, the most captivating sights in Grand View Garden are the withered lotus leaves covering the pond and the fragrance of osmanthus drifting everywhere.

Autumn lotuses stand as withered sticks, koi fish appear like guests at the gate. It feels like a dream—neither the red blossoms nor green leaves remain.

Koi come to pay homage to the lotuses, but alas, the lotuses are withered and in decline.

Feeding the koi by the pond: a mass of multicolored brocade koi all swarm together, jostling for the fish food.

Beside the covered walk in the back garden meanders a small stream.

In its midst rises a cluster of rockery, and atop the hill sits a small, open-sided pavilion.

This open-sided pavilion is called “Inviting the Moon,” where Baoyu could read and cultivate inner peace.

Here are the rear wing rooms, used as Jia Baoyu’s dining hall. This display of figurines depicts the sisters and maids of the Grand View Garden pooling their own money to celebrate Baoyu’s birthday with a “Night Banquet of Beauties.” Baochai and Daiyu sit on either side, while Jia Baoyu stands in the middle talking and performing, trying to offend neither side.

At the entrance stand a 150-year-old Podocarpus and a 100-year-old pomegranate, both second-class protected plants. On the left is the pomegranate, on the right the Podocarpus.

Inside Happy Red Court grow plantain and crabapple.

A pomelo tree bears fruit.

A rarely seen lacebark pine stands here.

The lacebark pine has a distinct main trunk, or sometimes several trunks branching near the base. Its slender, relatively long branches spread obliquely, forming a broad conical to umbrella-shaped crown. Young bark is smooth and gray-green; as the tree ages, the bark flakes off in irregular thin patches, revealing pale yellow-green new bark. Older bark becomes pale brownish-gray or grayish-white, cracking into irregular scaly plates that peel away, leaving a nearly smooth, pinkish-white inner surface, with a mottled brown-and-white scaly appearance.

Weigela: a shrub reaching 3 meters high and 3 meters wide, with spreading branches and a somewhat rounded form; some branches bend to the ground. Twigs are slender, with two rows of soft hairs when young. Leaves are elliptic or ovate-elliptic, with sharply pointed tips, rounded to wedge-shaped bases, and serrated margins. Upper leaf veins are hairy, especially dense beneath. Flowers are funnel-to-bell-shaped, rose-red, with five lobes. The fruit is a cylindrical capsule; seeds are wingless. It blooms from April to June. Weigela has dense foliage and brilliant flowers, with a bloom period lasting more than two months. It is a major early-spring flowering shrub in North China gardening. Suitable for planting in clusters by garden walls and lakesides; also works as a flowering hedge along forest edges. It can accent a rockery or slope.

After leaving Happy Red Court, cross the bridge to find the large lake on the right. In the lake stands the Dripping Emerald Pavilion.

To the east of Dripping Emerald Pavilion is a stone boat, the “Spring Wave Ornate Boat,” ideal for viewing the water. Couplets on the boat read: “A long bridge reclines on the waves, a new pavilion invites the moon; lotus fragrance intoxicates guests, willow hues enchant.”

The lake still holds autumn lotus.

The entire garden centers on the large lake, with ponds and the Qin Fang Stream linking the sights, forming a water system with main arteries and branches, movement and stillness. By the lakeside are pavilions and waterside halls; on the lake are winding bridges, stone boats, stone lanterns; over the stream arch bridge pavilions. It creates the Jiangnan garden scenery of layered hills, meandering waters, and waterside dwellings.

The memorial archway of the Visiting Home Villa stands right by the lake. The “Hall of Gratitude and Loyalty” is the main hall of the villa; behind it rises the Grand View Pavilion.

The Grand View Pavilion is a building complex in the center of the garden. Across the big lotus pond from the Hall of Gentle Benevolence, a white marble memorial archway bears the four gilded characters “Visiting Home Villa”; flanking it are the inscriptions “Fragrant Shore” and “Jade Ford.” On the back, the top center is carved “National Grace, Family Celebration,” with “Cloud Shadow” and “Wave Gleam” on left and right.

The Grand View Pavilion is where Consort Jia Yuanchun gathered with her family during her homecoming after touring the garden’s various quarters. Her visit marked the peak of the Jia family’s prosperity. The 15-meter-tall Grand View Pavilion, with its double-eaved hip-and-gable roof, stands at the heart of this architectural group—a classic imperial garden ensemble.

In front of the main hall rank two pairs of brass qilin and brass phoenixes—the “Hall of Gratitude and Loyalty.”

The main building, the Grand View Pavilion, is a two-story palace-style structure with a great glazed-tile roof, resplendent and sumptuously furnished. It was where family members paid formal respects to Yuanchun during her visit. Accessible through three courtyards, the compound has east and west wings: on the east side is the “Brocade-Sewn Pavilion,” on the west the “Fragrant Pavilion”; also the Grand View Garden Study and the Red Mansion Painting and Calligraphy Institute.

Covered corridors wind and link the buildings.

On the pillars hangs a couplet composed by Yuanchun: “Heaven and earth manifest vast compassion, all children of the empire are moved to gratitude; history records such grand ceremony, the realm is graced with imperial favor.” At the center of the hall stands the audience platform, upon which is placed a gilt screen carved with “A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix.” Before the screen sits the phoenix throne. Flanking it are incense burners, crane-shaped copper lamps, and fans of pheasant plumes and palace fans. On the east side of the ritual platform is a rosewood desk with the “four treasures of the study”; on the west side, ceremonial objects such as gold and jade *ruyi* scepters are displayed.

All the furniture is crafted from rosewood.

A hexagonal round table with tucked-in legs.

This is another spot filled with osmanthus fragrance, the air saturated with its perfume, as if a woman had just passed, leaving a lingering trace of scent.

Golden, silver, and orange osmanthus bloom here—see the photos below.

Orange osmanthus fragrance flies, touching vermilion strings; it splits the autumn scene perfectly. I will leave half a share to the golden breeze, while all this talk stirs mixed feelings and sighs.

The garden also boasts golden larch. Golden larch is a famous ancient relict plant, with the earliest fossils found in Late Cretaceous strata in eastern and western Siberia, and from the Paleocene to the Pliocene in Svalbard, Europe, central Asia, the western USA, northeastern China, and Japan. Because of climate change, especially the advent of the Pleistocene great ice age, golden larch died out everywhere except in a few surviving spots in the middle and lower Yangtze region of China. Due to its scattered distribution, scarcity, and marked intermittent cone production, it urgently needs protection.

Autumn Enjoyment Studio is Tanchun’s residence, a very regular, upright courtyard. The three-bay building is spacious and uncluttered.

In the main room stands a red-marble-topped desk holding an assortment of inkstones and brush pots—this is where “Clever Tanchun” assisted in managing the Grand View Garden in chapter 56 of the novel.

The west wing rooms are where the maids lived. On the wall hangs a reproduction of a Mi Fu “Rain and Mist” painting, flanked by a couplet in the style of Yan Zhenqing: “Leisurely heart amid clouds and glow, rugged-spirited life among springs and rocks.”

The east wing is Tanchun’s bedroom, with a large rosewood bed, a hexagonal rosewood table by the window, and a half-cabinet against the wall. The room’s decor is elegant.

Autumn Enjoyment Studio was the residence of the cleverest and most talented Jia Tanchun, who styled herself “Autumn Enjoyment Recluse.” She loved plantain, so the courtyard is filled with both phoenix trees and plantain; she also humbly called herself “The Guest under the Plantains.” Her decisive, generous character matches the tall, open style of her courtyard. The ground is paved with blue and white cobblestones arranged in a square pattern, symbolizing her straightforward, upright nature.

A saying goes: “Autumn waters, phoenix trees”; the sight of a phoenix tree invariably evokes autumn.

It is only fitting that Autumn Enjoyment Studio should be planted with phoenix trees—yet having one right outside her bedroom window directly conjures the image of the lady of the house on a cool autumn night, lying in her red gauze bed-curtains, listening to the patter of autumn rain on the phoenix leaves—such an elegant, girlish sentiment.

Here is another spot to admire osmanthus blossoms.

There is a beautiful laceleaf Japanese maple here—a horticultural variety of the Japanese maple in the Acer family. It is a deciduous shrub, usually no taller than 4 meters. Its crown spreads widely; leaves are finely dissected; they turn deep yellow to orange-red in autumn; branches slightly droop. Late autumn brings magnificent red foliage.

Warm Fragrance Nook lies south of Smartweed Phoenix Pavilion—a simple three-room cottage, once Xichun’s dwelling.

The central room is her painting studio, with a large rosewood desk and painting supplies. The east room is her bedroom; by the window sits a chess table, and on a wall shelf are displayed bronze ancient Buddhas, symbolizing Xichun’s love for painting and chess, and her eventual fate of shaving her head to become a nun.

In Warm Fragrance Nook’s east room, Xichun’s bedroom, by the window sits the chess table; on the side table rest bronze ancient Buddha statues, hinting at her painting and chess pastimes and her final renunciation.

South of Warm Fragrance Nook stands an open-sided pavilion, open front and back to the water, with benches along both sides. Now it’s a small food kiosk.

“Hall of Gentle Benevolence” and “Red Phoenix Water Pavilion.”

Xichun’s Lotus Fragrance Waterside Pavilion, as Grandmother Jia remarked during her “inspection” of the garden in the novel, was a bit too bleak and simple. Aside from painting tools—brushes, ink, paper, inkstone, stools and tables—there was only a simple daybed, quite faithful to the original description. However, the location is the finest among all the garden’s buildings. From her bedroom, a short, zigzag covered walk leads to a waterside pavilion facing the garden’s expansive open water. One imagines on a midsummer night, with a round fan in hand, enjoying the moonlit lake and the faint scent of lotus—such a heart-delighting pleasure.

Purple Caltrop Bower was the residence of Jia She’s daughter Jia Yingchun; she took the name “Caltrop Bower” in the Crab Flower Poetry Club.

Purple Caltrop Bower is built on a nine-turn bridge.

It consists of two identical buildings linked by a seven-turn bridge in the middle, with three-turn bridges at each end. When the water rises, the zigzag bridges appear to lie flat on the surface.

It is a scene from Cao Xueqin’s *Dream of the Red Chamber*, a waterside structure in the Smartweed-to-Cress area in the southwest, not far from Bamboo Lodge. Sent by Yuanchun into the Grand View Garden, Jia Yingchun lived in the Brocade-Sewn Pavilion here. As the “double-story” building is called a tower, Purple Caltrop Bower designates the broader location where the pavilion stands, Yingchun’s quarters in the garden. So in Chapter 37, when forming the poetry club and choosing sobriquets, Baochai said, “She lives in Purple Caltrop Bower, let’s call her Caltrop Bower.” Xing Xiuyan also stayed here while in the garden. After Yingchun married, Baoyu often came here to linger.

August golden osmanthus perfumes the whole sky; visitors pause, beaming smiles. Why does the autumn heart scatter its fragrance, making the maple leaves go unpitied?

Paddy-Sweet Village lies in the northeastern part of the garden, covering 431 square meters. It is a unique cluster of rustic cottages in the garden, quiet and thrifty, where Li Wan and her son lived. The courtyard has front and back gates; beside the front gate path stands a stele inscribed “Paddy-Sweet Village.”

Paddy-Sweet Village was the widow Li Wan’s home. Inside the hamlet, window lattices, wooden couches, pillars, and beams all keep the natural wood color, unpainted. South of the main house are a small thatched pavilion nearby and a small thatched hut farther off. The yard includes a well and a well sweep, full of rural atmosphere.

The garden is planted with numerous sweet osmanthus trees in full fragrant bloom.

In the back courtyard stand three thatched halls, their door and window beams brushed with tung oil to preserve the wood’s natural hue. The interior is simply yet elegantly decorated. The east room was Li Wan’s; the west room was arranged as a study for Jia Lan.

The front and back courtyards are linked on the east side by a covered nine-turn corridor.

Paddy-Sweet Village back courtyard: part of the courtyard has trees and flowers; by the wall is an earthen well with a windlass, and a well pavilion roofed with thatch.

Leaving Paddy-Sweet Village, you arrive at the eastern end of the Grand View Pavilion complex: the Convex Crystal Lodge, a three-bay hall that, surprisingly, is furnished as the wedding chamber of Baoyu and Baochai.

In fact, “Convex Crystal” and “Concave Emerald” have another origin. Xiangyun once praised the words “convex” and “concave” as wonderfully apt: “The high point of the hill can be called Concave Emerald, the low point by the water Convex Crystal. These two words are the least used historically.”

Using them for hall names directly is even more fresh and unconventional—and Daiyu eventually reveals that she came up with the names. She had proposed several, and those she suggested “were used unchanged,” with the names finally confirmed by Jia Zheng, showing his recognition of his niece’s talent.

Before Convex Crystal Lodge lies a stretch of withered lotus.

Osmanthus seeds perfume the courtyard, winding paths border the lotus pond.

Opposite Convex Crystal Lodge should stand Concave Emerald Mountain Retreat, but in Shanghai Grand View Garden, instead of a retreat on the height, they built a rather undistinguished little pavilion—Concave Emerald Pavilion.

Follow the path down and you reach Pear Fragrance Court, where the troupe of child actors lived; it was originally the place where the Duke of Rongguo spent his retirement. After Xue Pan, Baochai, and their mother Aunt Xue came to the capital, they were first lodged here. Later it became the quarters where Lingguan and the other eleven little actresses rehearsed martial arts, practiced, and rested.

Brocade-Gathering Nunnery lies west of Pear Fragrance Court, covering 477 square meters. Through dense bamboo groves, a clay-yellow mountain gate is half-revealed, inscribed with “Brocade-Gathering Nunnery.”

Inside is a stone release pond with a dragon-head spout dripping water; bell and drum towers flank it.

Brocade-Gathering Nunnery is the Jia family’s private nunnery, designed by Cao Xueqin specifically for Miaoyu—unassuming, elegant, pure and refined, one can say it is a “pure land” in *Dream of the Red Chamber*, where Miaoyu cultivated herself and meditated. Miaoyu came from a scholarly official family, well-versed in letters, and extremely beautiful. Because of childhood illness, her parents sent her into the monastery, where she kept her hair and practiced as a lay nun. She later followed her master to Chang’an; after the master died, the Jia family invited her.

In the rear courtyard is a grove of black bamboo, with a square pavilion named “Listening to the Waves.” Beyond, the Guanyin Wall is built of granite, carved with the characters “The Sea Flows Across the Land.” Before the wall stands a white marble statue of Guanyin, and in front of that, a small lotus pond enclosed by white marble balustrades.

“The Hall of Gentle Benevolence” is where Consort Yuanchun changed clothes and rested during her homecoming. The hall’s plaque reads “Gentle Benevolence,” meaning to gratefully receive the emperor’s grace. Situated opposite the memorial archway of the Visiting Home Villa, it’s where the consort alighted from her sedan and rested, covering 682 square meters. It is a three-bay hall, with the gilded plaque “Gentle Benevolence” hung overhead.

In the center of the main hall stands a large gilded screen of “Gold and Jade Fill the Hall,” hanging glass lanterns with dragon-and-phoenix and floral designs, a large brass incense burner, and an exquisitely carved set of eight *ruyi*-backed rosewood chairs with four side tables. The east room displays a blue-and-white porcelain vase over one meter high, decorated with pine and crane motifs. The west room holds a three-tier gilded wooden carving of a giant peach, flanked by nearly meter-tall silk elephants and qilin.

In the side corridors in front of the hall, the east side exhibits the consort’s procession standards with pheasant plumes and dragon banners; the west side shows the large sedan chair she rode in.

Behind the hall stretches the grand lotus pond, facing north across the water.

The fragrance of sweet osmanthus fills the air; the silver osmanthus is already showering down petals.

Leaving the hall, Qin Fang Lake comes into view.

Watching and feeding the koi in Qin Fang Lake is a delightful activity.

When someone feeds the fish, the koi will all swim together in one direction.

Qin Fang Pavilion, as described in the novel, is also built on a bridge, hence its name “pavilion bridge.” It offers a superb vantage point to view the entire garden. Qin Fang Bridge is where Baoyu and Daiyu often met privately; many moving stories in *Dream of the Red Chamber* take place here. Above hangs a plaque reading “Qin Fang”; on the pavilion pillars hang couplets.

Qin Fang Bridge lies at the eastern end of the Winding Path rockery. Cross the bridge, and follow the lakeside path to the pool of jade-green water behind the hill.

Circling back through the winding path brings you to the main gate again.

Only a few crape-myrtle blossoms remain on the rockery.

By the roadside is a patch of lantana; a few colorful butterflies flutter by—I snapped some shots.

Lantana (Lantana camara L.), also called wild sage, red sage, shrub verbena, Spanish flag, West Indian lantana, etc. The flowers are beautiful and commonly grown as ornamentals in gardens across China.

Alpinia Court covers 699 square meters. The front courtyard has a mandarin-duck hall—symmetrical front and back divided by a central panel door.

Arriving at Alpinia Court, you’re met by an imposing, craggy rockery that completely hides the buildings behind. In the novel, when Jia Zheng first entered the Grand View Garden, he was rather displeased with this spot: “This house here is quite uninteresting.” But once you circle past the rocks, the architect’s ingenuity becomes clear: the building is a classic Chinese residence double-sided hall—warm on the south side in winter, cool on the north in summer—cleverly highlighting the special status of its occupant, Xue Baochai. The courtyard gate bears the three characters “Alpinia Court” in Yan-style calligraphy, and the corners are planted with Boston ivy and evergreen ivy, a subtle nod to Baochai’s steady, dignified yet tactful, clinging personality.

The great rockery rises and falls in jagged contours—at times soaring into a dramatic peak that blocks the view, at times revealing intriguing caverns that beckon you deeper. The Taihu stones are some rounded and smooth, others jagged, interlocking in delightful concealment.

In the middle of the rockery, a waterfall cascades down, following a stream alongside a waterside pavilion to flow into the lotus pond. Ascend the winding mountain path to the summit, and you reach the elegant hexagonal Wind Pavilion. Its six upturned eaves look like the wings of a giant bird about to take flight—for a fleeting moment, you almost feel you might soar into the sky with it.

Astonishingly, the hilltop pavilion is connected directly to the main building by an aerial walkway, leading all the way up to the second floor of the Red Mansions. Upstairs are Xue Baochai’s living quarters: a master bedroom (with a small half-study tucked behind), and a room for tea and rest, all lavishly furnished. In the center of the building is a hallway without a balcony, but the front door opens to a close-up view of the garden below, the little pavilion and walkway to the left front, and a distant, hazy glimpse of the trees and rockeries around Qin Fang Pavilion.

Alpinia Court was the home of Baoyu’s older female cousin Xue Baochai. She lost her father young and lived temporarily with her mother and brother in the Jia household, later chosen to marry Baoyu. The gate plaque with “Alpinia Court” in Yan style exactly suits the owner’s “steady, dignified” and “measured” nature.

Bamboo Lodge was Lin Daiyu’s residence, covering 543 square meters. Originally a bamboo grove, more exquisite bamboos and trees were added so the whole complex nestles in a lush canopy. Enter through the moon gate, and a wall bears the inscription “Crimson Pearl Grass Hut” in gold, flanked by pine, bamboo, and plum.

The main gate bears the plaque “Bamboo Lodge.”

A covered walk, pebble pathways winding beneath the steps, and “a small, modest two or three chambers.”

Going around to the front courtyard, sure enough, the yard is dappled with emerald bamboo; winding corridors link three rooms nestled right amid the rustling bamboo.

Cross a stone bridge over a stream to reach the main building, “Where a Phoenix Alights.” The east room was Daiyu’s bedroom, the west room for her maids Zijuan and Xueyan. Above the main hall hangs the plaque “Where a Phoenix Alights”; flanking couplet is the one Baoyu composed that won approval from both his father and his sister Yuanchun, and later left unchanged during her review: “In precious tripod, tea idly cools, yet the smoke seems still green; at latticed window, chess ended, fingers still feel the chill.” Later Redology scholars agree the words “seems still” and “still feel” are masterful, lingering with endless poetic sentiment.

The east room is Daiyu’s bedroom, laid out just as described in the book. Remarkably, there’s a life-size wax figure of Daiyu, reclining on an ornate carved bed, looking thoughtful as she reads—surprisingly lifelike.

On the east and west sides in front of the main house are “Dragon’s Chant Pavilion” and “Bamboo Shadows Pavilion.”

The courtyard of Bamboo Lodge is a bamboo grove, laced with winding paths.

Behind the bamboo garden, a rockery platform stands.

To the northwest is “Elegant Jade Studio,” a set of three small rooms divided by openwork floor screens, where Daiyu wrote poems, played chess, and entertained guests.

“Pear Blossom Spring Rain” is the room where Daiyu practiced the qin and read. It is furnished with a complete set of bamboo-shaped rosewood furniture. In the center is a *Xiangfei*-style daybed; the west room displays the implements Daiyu used for burying fallen blossoms.

The stream source flows from here into the garden.

Watching the koi here is a true delight.

The koi behave as if trained: look at them, lined up in ranks, swimming in a single direction.

Wherever people go, they follow. We interacted several times with great success—surely they were being fed.

Azure Cloud Pagoda is not inside the Grand View Garden but a scenic spot just outside. It is actually a water tower—or more precisely, an imitation ancient pagoda with a top-storey water tank. It is built in Song style, hexagonal, seven stories, reinforced concrete, over forty meters high. Visitors used to climb a spiral iron staircase to the fifth floor; the sixth holds the water tank.

From Azure Cloud Pagoda you could birdwatch the entire Grand View Garden, but it is closed to visitors now.