Dongpo Park

Dongpo Park is located in the east part of downtown of Changzhou city, and its original name is Dongjiao Park. It covers 2.667 hectares, and is a typical Jiangnan Garden comprised of thr cultural sites and natural landscape. During the time of south Song dynasty, the civilians of Changzhou established Yizhou Pavilion to commemorate, Su Dongpo, who was the great literature master and used to come to Changzhou. During the time of Qing dynasty, Kangxi and Qianlong, two emperors southwardly visited, they ordered to build up the temporary palace here and reconstructed this pavilion.

The gate of Dongpo Park adopts the traditional craft of brick carving. Entering the gate, the white walls, the natural and traditional design and the elaborative gardening skills decorated with the traditional garden plants such as pine trees, bamboos, lilies and so on. It appears the garden style of Chinese ancient classical garden characteristics. Ink-stone Washing Pool of Dongpo is 1 meter long, half meter wide and half meter deep and it is made of the green stone. This pool is the place that Su Dongpo washed his writing brushes. The middle of the park, there is a pavilion called Dragon Pavilion near to the pool. It is the traditional building and there are also two dragons on the top of the pavilion, Emperor Qianlong used to appreciate the landscape here and to examine the local learners here. There is also an Emperor-Stele Pavilion to the south of the dragon pavilion. There are six pieces of poems carved on the stele, which were all written by Emperor Qianlong when he visited southern China. These poems show this emperor’s worship to Su Dongpo and the edification to the local official. This is a traditional and cultural park in Changzhou and partially shows the history of Changzhou of the past.