Chinese gardens turn nature into art: no rivers or peaks needed, but mountains, water, pavilions and trees composed in miniature to feel "made by man, yet as if from heaven".
Suzhou is the garden capital - the Humble Administrator Garden, Lingering Garden, Master-of-Nets Garden and Canglang Pavilion are all UNESCO sites. Beijing Summer Palace and Chengde Mountain Resort represent the imperial style.
Four elements: rocks (fake mountains, the porous Taihu stone), water (pools and reflections), architecture (pavilions and halls), plants (evergreen and flowering through the seasons).
The "new scene with every step" trick: corridors, lattice windows and borrowed views make every step a fresh composition; a lattice window itself becomes a picture frame that changes as you move.
Visiting: Suzhou garden tickets run 40-90 yuan; hire a guide or use an audio guide to appreciate the craft; dawn and dusk are quietest and most atmospheric.
Gardens embody the Chinese ideal of tian-ren-he-yi: harmony between people and nature, a pocket of landscape inside the busy city.
