Situated in the southwest of Suzhou City (sū zhōu shì 苏州市), the Surging Waves Pavilion (cāng làng tíng 沧浪亭) is one of the oldest gardens in Suzhou. It was originally constructed during Northern Song Dynasty (běi sòng 北宋). And it was the private garden of Su Shunqin (sū shùn qīn 苏舜钦), who is a poet, and gave the name “Surging Waves Pavilion”. And it became famous after the poem written by Ouyang Xiu (ōu yáng xiū 欧阳修). After the death of Su Shunqin, the garden changed hands many times. In the early years of Southern Song Dynasty (nán sòng 南宋), it was the mansion of General Han Shizhong (hán shì zhōng 韩世忠). In the year 1696, during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (kāng xī dì 康熙帝), the garden was reconstructed by grand coordinators Song Luo (sòng luò 宋荦), who moved the pavilions beside the pond to the top of the rockery, and made the painting of Wen Zhengming (wén zhēng míng 文征明) into a stele hanging on the front gate. Though the original appearance of the garden was changed, the ancient woods are still growing there which are partly reflected the style of the Song Dynasty.
　
Outside the Surging Waves Pavilion, there is a green pond round the garden. The rockeries upon the pond are in different shape, the corridor is winding like a belt, and the decorative openwork windows in the corridor make the scene inside the garden and outside the garden integrate whole. In the garden, the rockeries are taken as the main part. There are stone paths circling around the rockery and leading to the top, where the famous Surging Waves Pavilion is located. The pavilion is of classic elegance. The stone stele hanging on the pavilion is written by Yu Yue (yú yuè 俞樾). On the pillars of the pavilion, there is the couplet, the two sentence of which are selected from the poem written by Ouyang Xiu and Su Shunqin. Around the pavilion, there are six towering trees with more than 100 years old. Totally, there are 108 decorative openwork windows within the garden, there are no two of which has the same decorative pattern.

The biggest architecture in the garden is the Mingdao Hall (míng dào táng 明道堂), which is located to the southeast of the rockery. The hall has three rooms, which were used for the scholars of the Ming and Qing dynasties to give lectures. Together with the ancient threes and the rockeries, the hall is in a solemn atmosphere. On the wall of the hall, there are three rubbings of the stone carving of the Song Dynasty, which are the celestial map, territory map of the Song Dynasty and the Suzhou City map in the Song Dynasty. It is said that the emperor Qianlong once invited Wang Zhoushi (wáng zhōu shì 王周士), who is an artist of storytelling and ballad singing in Suzhou dialect to give a performance. To the south of the Mingdao Hall, there are the Kanshan Pavilion (kàn shān lóu 看山楼) and Yinxin Stone House, which are with different style. Step into the Kanshan Pavilion, tourist can get an overview of scenery of Suzhou far or near. To the north, there are three houses called "Cuilinglong”(cuì líng lóng 翠玲珑), around which there planted green bamboos. Next to the Cuilinglong there is the

The Surging Waves Pavilion
Location: No. 3 Canglangting Street (cāng làng tíng jiē 沧浪亭街), Suzhou City
Admission fee: RMB 15 (Oct. 31 – April 15)
                       RMB 20 (Apr. 16 – Oct. 30)
Opening hours: 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Transportation: you can take tourist bus Line 2, 4, and 5, and bus No. 1, 39, 101, 102, 103, 308, and 309 to get there