Dome

Acting and Singing Stage (Gu Xitai), used for Chinese Opera; The Yu Garden was originally built between 1559 and 1577 for a Ming (period, 1368-1644) official named Pan Yu [Pan Yunduan] and is a good example of the sophisticated art of Chinese garden design (Suzhou style). The limited surface area of the garden (2 ha) is laid out with winding paths, bridges, carefully placed rocks and hills and ingeniously connected pavilions, so as to convey the impression of a far more extensive area than exists in reality. The buildings were restored twice during the Qing period (period,1644-1911), in 1760 and ca. 1850, and again in 1958. A centerpiece is the Exquisite Jade Rock (Yù Línglóng), a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. The most famous building within the garden proper is the Dianchun Hall ("Heralding Spring Hall") built in 1820, the first year of the Daoguang Emperor; it served as the base of the Small Swords Society from September 1853 to February 1855 during the Taiping Rebellion. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 4/25/2013)