Beijing Grand View Garden –A Garden from Dream of the Red Chamber
As a unique pseudo-classic garden in China, Beijing Grand View Garden was built just for the shooting of Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin in 1984. The Grand View Garden boasts attractions designed by architects and aestheticians through employing a combination of techniques of Chinese classical architecture and Chinese traditional Gardening, which is true to Cao’s description in his Dream of the Red Chamber, from courtyards to temples to gardens to rivers and even to plants.
Beijing Grand View Garden
Covering an area of 13 hectare, Beijing Grand View Garden boasts more than 40 featured attractions, including 5 courtyards (the Happy Red Court, the Bamboo Lodge, the Alpinia Court, the Variegated Splendor Tower and the Studio of Autumn Freshness) , 3 natural scenic areas (the Lotus Fragrance Anchorage, the Verdant Green Pavilion and the Paddy-Sweet Cottage ), one Buddhist Temple (the Gathering Emerald Nunnery) and one provisional palace (the Grand View Pavilion) as well as affiliated architectures such as the Reed Snow Cottage and the Red Fragrance Orchard, all of which are well connected and dotted as pearls among the rivers and rockeries, bringing out the best in one another.
Lin Daiyu in Dream of Red Chamber
The attraction varies from one another in Beijing Grand View Garden, which changes with every step you make, for example: the Happy Red Court, where Jia Baoyu (hero of the Dream of the Red Chamber) lives, is splendid and imposing and gives off the fragrance of pansy, and the Bamboo Lodge, where Lin Daiyu (heroine of Dream of the Red Chamber) lives, is surrounded by bamboo forest; On the contrary, the Thanks-Giving Hall, where the Queen Yuan (Jia Baoyu’s elder sister) lives as her provisional palace during her visit home, is luxury and brilliant in an imperial style, fully recreating the prosperous screen of Jia’s family then.
Jia Baoyu in Dream of Red Chamber
In addition, the Red Chamber Art Exhibit is also available in Beijing Grand View Garden, and it is composed of 6 sections, namely, Queen Yuan’s Visit Home, Red Chamber Relic Collection, Red Chamber Culture & Art, Grand View Garden, Family Background and Life of Cao Xueqin and Red Chamber Academic Research, where you’ll be marveled at the broadness and profoundness of Dream of the Red Chamber by visiting it.
Falling Flowers in Water
A number of featured cultural activities are regularly held in Beijing Grand View Garden, highlighted by Queen Yuan Visiting Home Performance, Temple Fair of Grand View Garden and the Night of Red Chamber, adding much luster to the garden.
Author: Yang Qingwei
