Beautiful and Diversified Scenery in Limited Space

The Yellow Dragon Cave（Huang Long Dong）is a picturesque gardenlike spot at the foot of a hill whose special aesthetic quality consists in the compactness of itsoverall layout where streams and ponds, exquisite-looking pavilions and terraces,secluded shrines and caves, bamboo groves and woods, limpid springs and weird-looking rocks and what not lie snuggling together to form a scenic garden marked byquietude and tastefulness and where an atmosphere of inexplicable mystery somehowperennially prevails, probably owing to its Taoist origin. The poetic name for thisscenic sight is Budding Green at Yellow Dragon Cave（Huang Long Tu Cui）.

The entrance to this scenic sight is a two-tier temple gate in the deep shadowsof timeless trees that has a markedly antique flavor with flying, upturned eaves in themidst of towering trees and intertwined vines. This is symbolic of the head of a yellowdragon and the inscribed couplet on the two sides of the gate reminds one of theTaoist origin of the place. Inside the temple gate, one sees a path leading up the hillslope that threads its way up under luxuriant trees and other kinds of plant life. Thepath winds it way sinuously up the hillside close to or in parallel with yellow-paintedwalls that follow the contour of the slope, looking like the cervical part of a dragon.On the yellow-painted walls are see-through holes shaped like dragons in ninedifferent postures. Then one reaches a gate in the walls that leads the way into agarden where one sees halls and chambers built level on level and picturesquerockeries amidst an exuberant growth of trees and tall bamboo.

In this garden with its encircling roofed corridors interspersed here and therewith beautifully designed pavilions and fantastic rockeries and water ponds, onewould feel curiously refreshed and far from the mundane world. Lookingaround, one will see on the lefthand side a pavilion perched halfway up a mound thatis half hidden by trees. This is the Ever Happy （Chang Le）Pavilion. Opposite thispavilion, on the righthand side, one will see another pavilion of a graceful andattractive design and that is the Fragrant Snow （Xiang Xue） Pavilion. At somedistance in front is the Crane Stopping（He Zhi）Pavilion that serves as a junction onthe garden-encircling roofed corridor where one sees beautiful rockwork all round.Some of the rockeries here stand vertically erect, some lie prostrate near them andsome snuggle together in clusters. Rockeries form the walls and embankment of thepond, looking cragged and rugged, with the big head of a dragon overlooking them that spouts a gush of clear spring water near which stands a colossal piece of stoneinscribed on one side with the words：“Waters Does not Always Need to be Deep（Shui Bu Zai Shen）”and on the other with the words：“But the Presence of theDragon Makes It Divine （You Long Ze Ling）.”And this is the underlying theme ofthe scenery at the Yellow Dragon Cave.

The Yellow Dragon Cave

Elsewhere in scenic Hangzhou, the garden in the Seal Engraver's Society boastssome similar features. There one finds what are called the Cypress Hall （Bai Tang）and the Bamboo Pavilion （Zhu Ge）that form part of the garden scenery there. TheCypress Hall whose architectural style reminds one of classical ancient times hasupturned, flying eaves. Elegantly decorated, this is where Chinese fine art andcalligraphy and ancient bronzeware and stone things are on display. With the CypressHall and the Bamboo Pavilion supplemented by other antique-looking structures likecovered corridors with upturned eaves, whitewashed walls and water ponds, thegarden scenery here is most impressive. The rockeries that surround the pond eitherstand erect and tall or lie low and prostrate, with some of them only slightlyprotruding from the ground. Rockwork of this type is ingenious in its design, for whatis lying low like the offshoots of a hill will prompt one to wonder about the where-abouts of the main peaks and a kind of implicit connection is thus established. In thepond here are scattered growths of sleeping lotus whose flowers are reflected in thewater, lending more color to the water scene and making everything more tasteful.