Kezhi Yuan

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At the northern edge of the old district, on Xijing Street, is Kezhi Yuan (Kezhi Gardens). This was our second stop on the tour of Zhujiajiao. 


The name Kezhi is made up of the characters 课 (kè) which means "to learn" and 植 (zhí) which means "to plant". It consists of three parts - the main hall, the garden and an artificial hill area. The most iconic landmark of the gardens is a five story building with a pavilion on its roof - the tallest structure in old Zhujiajiao. 

The history of this garden dates back to 1912, when Ma Wenqing built it, drawing inspiration from a mixture of Chinese and European influences. The construction took 15 years and 300 000 silver taels, equivalent to 12000 kg of silver. 

The wars and revolutions of the following half century brought much destruction to the garden and its buildings, and in 1956 additional old structures where torn down to make room for teaching buildings of the Zhujiajiao Middle School that had come to occupy Kezhi Gardens. 

It was not until 1986 that the garden became a protected structure and renovation to return it to its original style was started, and in 2003 the middle school was relocated.

Kezhi Yuan is an oasis of peace in the bustling water town and we spent 60-minutes wandering around the gardens and visiting the different buildings that were open to the public.































All images were taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 with either a XF10-24mm f4, XF16-55mm f2.8 or XF50-140mm f2.8 Fujinon lens.

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