Sun Tzu Garden: Sun Tzu Garden built against the mountain was the place where Sun Tzu wrote the militant books with great concentration. A stream led by bamboo pipes from the mountain is in the front of the hut, and ancient bed, ancient stool, coir raincoat and hoe in the hut. One side of the place is vegetable field and on the other a bamboo booth. These arrangements render Sun Tzu’s retreated life here. Out of the Sun Tzu Garden, there are two parallel closed square walkways filled with steles and they take up over 1300 square meters. On the steles engraved the text of the Art of War. On the two sides, there are Generals’ Wall and Calligraphers’ Wall. On the Generals’ Wall, there are epigraphs from 16 contemporary generals and 17 contemporary calligraphers’ works on the Calligraphers’ Wall. On the stage to the northeast of the walkways, you can find the bronze statue of ‘Sun Tzu the Sage of War’, and the Hall of Sun Tzu behind the statue.

Shangzhen Taoist Temple: Shangzhen Taoist Temple was first build in Chuping period of East Han Dynasty, which is over 1,800 years away from now. The taoist temple is very important not only in Suzhou, but in the whole Jiangnan area. According to the historical records, the taoist temple had been destroyed in fire in the end of Yuan Dynasty and then was rebuilt by a legendary taoist called Shi Shengliang in Shunzhi period of Qing Dynasty. At its prime time, there were 5,048 chambers, 36 halls and 170 scenic sites. In the past, Emperor Qianlong visited Jiangnan six times and went to the taoist temple every time to pray for happiness. It showed the importance of the taoist temple at that time. However, the temple was destroyed and rebuilt several times during the thousands of years. What we are seeing now was rebuilt in 1990s on the ruins. During the last decade, with the support of the relative bureaus and the taoist disciples, some buildings and scenic sites like Toushan Door, Maojun Palace, Dragon King Palace, Emperor of Heaven’s Palace, Lake-view Gazebo have been furbished or rebuilt.

The Imperial Path of Qianlong: The Imperial Path was a 1.5m broad walkway paved with Yanhua stones named after the Emperor Qianlong. This imperial path is different from other imperial paths in Suzhou because other ones were built exclusively for the emperors with the brick-paved ‘人(people)’ patterns which meant that the emperors walking on them were ‘above all people’. Whereas the imperial path here in Qionglong Mountain had already built with gravels before Qianlong was there. Only because he walked on this way every time he came to Qionglong Mountain, people call it the Imperial Way as monumentalization. In recent years, the Scenery Precinct has rebuilt the pre-existed sites like Iron-bamboo Gazebo, Double-knee brook, Temple of the God-of-Earth to vitalize the path.

Ningbang Temple: According to the historical records, Ningbang Temple was first built in Lang Dynasty and was called ‘Ocean-cloud Buddhism Court’. It is said that in the 12th year of Shaoxing period of South Song Dynasty, the subordinates of the famous general Han Shizhong who fought against the invading Jin army retreated there to worship the Buddha and then changed the temple’s name to Ningbang. Ningbang means ‘peaceful country’ which wishes the country with peace. In front of the temple, there is a stone lion. The stone lion is not the ordinary lion but a special kind who is very greedy. It is said that it even swallows the sun, the moon and the stars. It was the ground base where Han Shizhong put the army flag to warn the soldiers not to be greedy. When his subordinates came here to become the Buddhists, they brought the stone lion here.

Zhu Maichen’s Study Stage: With a long history of China, there are many study stages all over the country, like Li Bai’s Study Stage in Susong, Anhui, Caozhi’s Study Stage in Juancheng, Shangdong, and so on. In all of them, Zhu Maichen’s Study Stage is regarded as one of the five most famous stages in China for its legendary stories. Different from other study stages, it is a natural piece of cuboid-like huge rock with a length of 2.5m, height of 1.3m and breadth of 1.5m. On the stone, it is engraved with ‘Study Place of Sir Zhu the Procurator of Kuaiji in Han Dynasty’. Sir Zhu here is Zhu Maichen, a famous official in West Han Dynasty who became recognized at his old age. It is said that he was born in a very low and poor family but he loved study very much and he read books whenever he had time. Back then, all the books were made of bamboos so they were very heavy. When he went to chop or sell the firewood, it was very inconvenient to take the books. For this reason, his wife always mocked and blamed him. Therefore, he didn’t bring the books home or to the market but hid under the big rock and read there. After he finally achieved a lot from the hard study, people named the rock ‘Zhu Maichen’s Study Stage’ and the local town ‘Cangshu’ to remember him.