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Bird's eye view of "Guan Yun Feng" (King Cloud Courtyard); [Garden plans and elevations drawn for Archivision by Zhu Guang Ya.] Suzhou is a city in Jiangsu Province, China. Always a cultural centre, Suzhou was at the height of its artistic importance in the late Yuan (1279-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) periods. Because the city was built on marshy ground, much of its transportation was through a network of canals spanned by humpbacked and moon-shaped stone bridges. This led in turn to its identification as the 'Venice of the East'. The marshiness also expedited the development of the art of gardening in Suzhou because of the ease with which natural ponds, an essential element in Chinese gardens, could be dredged. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 2/15/2008)