The serene North Sea (shotin the early years of the 20th century).

    China's feudal society entered the Ming(1368-1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644 -1911) from the Yuan Dynasty. Freehand style of Chinese landscape painting reached its maturity in the Yuan Dynasty, accelerating the development and perfection of the art of garden building. And the all-round development of imperial gardens, private gardens, temple gardens and natural scenery gardens led to the building of Yuanmingyuan (Garden of Perfect Splendor), a representative work of the later years of ancient China's gardens, when the art of garden building further

developed into a unique garden design theory.

    Imperial gardens of the Ming Dynasty surround the Wansui Mountain and the Taiye Pond, as represented by the West Garden inside the Royal City Proper, and the Yuhuayuan (Royal Garden) within the Forbidden City. Both imperial gardens and privately-owned gardens of the Qing Dynasty had their unique contributions, and they form the main body of the classical Chinese gardens we see today. We can take as an example the Bishu Shanzhuang (Mountain Estate for Escaping the Heat) built in Chengde north of the Great Wall. It is a combination of architectural styles of the Han, the Mongolian and the Tibetan people, with a combination of various religious architecture rarely seen either inside or outside of China.

    In addition, the scenery varies by region, with the lake areas portraying the exquisite charm of the river villages of south China, the hills areas showing the unconstrained and rugged beauty of mountainous west China, and the flatland area showing a unique lush style north of the Great Wall. It is a "museum of garden art" indeed. Westerners who have had a comprehensive view of the Garden of Perfect Splendor call it the "garden of ten thousand gardens", as it not only absorbed the essence of the art of gardening throughout all the dynasties, but also drew on the architectural styles of the West, perfect examples of which are the Baroque style water fountain and Western-style mansion at the north of Changchun Yuan Garden. The art of Chinese gardens, over a long period of development and perfection, has now encompassed the contemporary spirit of east-west exchange.

    Private gardens of the Qing Dynasty are mainly concentrated in the area of Nanjing, Suzhou and Yangzhou, with the Yangzhou gardens being the most representative. The Geyuan Garden of Yangzhou has hills in the garden and pavilions on the hills, and from the pavilion you can see the entire city proper covered in green, the magnificent scenery of the Slender West Lake and Pingshantang Hall, showing a highly developed art of garden construction.