Baoding Ancient Lotus Pond: The Garden Jewel of Northern China

Baoding Ancient Lotus Pond is one of the famous classical gardens in northern China, located in the center of Baoding city, Hebei Province, with a history of nearly 800 years. It was founded in 1227, at the junction of the Jin and Yuan dynasties, originally named Xue Xiang Garden, and later got its name from the flourishing lotus in the pond, hence known as the Ancient Lotus Pond57. Covering an area of about 32,000 square meters, with some sources mentioning 24,000 square meters, it is one of China's top ten historic gardens and was named a national key cultural relics protection unit in 2001. The garden's founder was the Mongolian military general Zhang Rou. During the Yuan dynasty, it remained a private garden, became the prefectural yamen in the Ming dynasty, and was further expanded in the Qing dynasty to form the 'Twelve Scenes of the Lotus Pond' covering 100 acres, earning the reputation of 'Urban Penglai'. During the Yongzheng era, the Governor of Zhili, Li Wei, founded an academy in the garden, which was converted into a Scholar's Pavilion in 1904, and into a primary school in 1912. In 1936, when Song Zheyuan was in charge of the Hebei provincial government, he restored the Lotus Pond Academy, but its history came to an end due to the Lugou Bridge Incident. The Ancient Lotus Pond is centered around the pond water and the Lin Yi Pavilion, with exquisite buildings, cultural relics, rare flowers, mythical creatures, painted boats, and fragrant lotuses, creating a beautiful scroll of 'scenery within the lake, poetry within the scenery'. The garden style is exquisite and delicate, with a clear and inclusive ambiance, combining the essence of ancient architectural garden styles from both northern and southern China, and is acclaimed as the pearl of ancient northern Chinese gardens.