Chen Jingen:The Owner of Jingsi Garden

Introduction

Being magnificent or exquisite, Chinese architecture has formed its unique style. On the Shanghai Expo site, anyone can tell which one is the China Pavilion, Oriental Crown, because of its Douguan shape and Gugong Red. It is a perfect piece of architecture that conveys plenty of Chinese elements.

If the Oriental Crown is an example of the magnificence of Chinese architecture and a symbolization of Chinese philosophy of Heaven and Earth , obviously the style of Suzhou Gardens is a solid proof of the exquisiteness and a combination of Human and Culture .

The Power of A Dream

It all began from his first visit to Suzhou. His parents took him to the Humble Administrator s Garden, and he was enchanted by those stones, paths, terraces and pavilion. He was eight. Then he had a dream: I would like to build a garden like this, of my own.

The dream had been so powerful that after succeeding in business he really started to build his own garden. During ten years he had been travelling around the whole country to collect Chinese gateways, windows, furniture, bridges and stones, especially Lingbi stones and Taihu stones. In the end, he attained all he needed for a classic Chinese garden, and his private collection of valuable stones had reached more than 3000 pieces.

Every Piece of Stone Has A Story

The largest stone in the Jingsi Garden is a Lingbi Stone called Qingyun Peak . It is 9.1 meters high and weighs 136 tons, and has more than 1600 holes. It is said that water can run through all the holes from the top to the bottom, and smoke can run through all the holes from the bottom to the top. A story about the stone has been told again and again to the visitors. It was found in Lingbi County of Anhui Province in Song Dynasty. The Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty attempted to have the stone delivered to the imperial garden, however, it was too large and heavy and finally he left it there. Chen Jingen tried strenuously. He went to Lingbi County eight times, spent almost 3 years in digging the stone with local stone workers, built roads of 5 km and 2 bridges, borrowed a flat truck of 25 m (made by Russia for missile-delivering) and cranes used in the project of Yangpu Bridge in Shanghai. Since they could only operate at night, it took 55 days to deliver the giant stone safely.

Embracing the Expo 2010

The Jingsi Garden opened to the public in 2003, Chen Jingen has been enjoying his cultural investment since then. Now the Expo 2010 is coming, the legendary owner of the biggest private classic Chinese garden in Jiangnan area will certainly tell more and more visitors interesting stories about the garden, and his ardent love for Chinese culture.