Several Jiangsu cities contain fine examples of Chinese Classical Gardens, but those in Suzhou are the ones most well known due to their World Heritage List status. The following passage from the UNESCO document about the inscription of the Suzhou gardens on the World Heritage List describes the great beauty of these gardens:

Classical Chinese garden design, which seeks to recreate natural landscapes in miniature, is nowhere better illustrated than in the nine gardens in the historic city of Suzhou. They are generally acknowledged to be masterpieces of the genre. Dating from the 11th-19th century, the gardens reflect the profound metaphysical importance of natural beauty in Chinese culture in their meticulous design (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/813).

Tiger Hill (Huqiu)
Tiger Hill is said to be the most attractive spot in Suzhou, with its rich historical culture, an ancient leaning pagoda, and various century-old relics in a beautiful natural setting. The sights of the park are concentrated on one slope and the crest of the hill, making a visit convenient. The hill is well wooded with a clear stream running around its foot. Many places of historical interest have made the hill a tourist attraction. It stationed the Palace of State Wu (770-476 BC). A legend says that a white tiger came to guard the grave of Emperor Fuchai three days after he was buried in the hill. Since then, it has been known as Tiger Hill. It was also the favorite place for some emperor and many artists. Famous poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty, once at the post of civil official in Suzhou, often gathered artists and scholars on the hill to enjoy the view. That is why Su Dongpo said some 900 years ago, “It would be a regret for visitors to Suzhou to miss the Tiger Hill.”

Generally speaking, temples hide themselves in hills or mountains. But Tiger Hill is inside the temple while the pagoda comes out of the forest on the hill. A funny poem also states: “Monks in the temple fear that the hill would move away, so the abbot bids them bolt the temple gate before the sunset.” No matter when you come to visit, the hill is very charming because of its long history, countless historical sites left by poets and other eminent people. The Tiger Hill Pagoda, built 1,000 years ago, is a historical monument for national preservation, and it is made of bricks with colorful peony flowers painted on the walls inside each floor. The paintings are of artistic value. It is not only the cream of China’s pagodas but also a symbol of Suzhou.

Master-of-Nets Garden (Wangshi Yuan)
Sometimes, the smallest package can contain the most magnificent gift. The Garden of the Master of the Nets is a clear example of this. It is the smallest of the Suzhou residential gardens, yet it is the most impressive because of its use of space, which creates the illusion of an area that is much larger than its actual size. Even more than the architectural achievement is the mood of tranquility and harmony that this humble garden embodies.

Originally known as the Fisherman's Retreat, it was laid out under the Southern Song Dynasty, and was renamed the Master-of-Nets Garden in the Qianlong reign under the Qing Dynasty. The Master-of-Nets Garden covers 5,400 square meters, and is divided into two parts: the eastern house and the western garden. Half enclosed by a screen wall with a row of iron rings for tethering horses, and two alleyway side entrances, the front door faces south, having a pair of pendulums in front, and hairpin-like door ornaments above, and two huge blocks of stone carved in the shape of drums kept fast with the hands, placed one by its left side and another by its right side. This type of front door showing the owner's rank at the court has become very rare now. On a north-south axis there are four successive buildings separated by garden courts, namely the front door hall, the sedan-chair hall, the grand reception hall, and the two-floor tower. Constructed in accordance with the strict regulations of feudalism, they are magnificent buildings with extraordinary furnishing and interior decoration. In front of the grand reception hall is a door with richly carved earthen ornamentation. The two-storey tower at rear is the place where the family used to stay, and the hall in front was chiefly for receptions, public celebrations, and ceremonial observances. Every hall has a door or walk-way leading to the garden. It is a typical example of combining living quarters with a landscape garden in Suzhou. In addition, the Master-of-Nets Garden is the best place to enjoy the ambiance of Chinese classical gardens and traditional art performances at night.

Surging Waves Pavilion (Canglang Pavilion）
As one of the oldest gardens in Suzhou, the Canglang Pavilion was built by Su Shunqin, a renowned poet of the Northern Song Dynasty (920-1127). “Fishermen,” a poem of the state of Chu, reads: “Clear surging waves can wash my tassels, and dirty surging waves can clean my feet,” hence the name Canglang (Surging Waves) Pavilion. This garden, renowned for its peaceful scenery and simple architecture, is a fine example showing how the natural landscape both inside and outside can be merged. Long corridors follow the banks of the green water pond just outside the garden. Waving trees, bamboos and flowers in the garden add beauty and radiance to the rustic charm of mountain forests. The Shrine to 500 Men of Letters is the main historical site in the garden, where tourists can find 594 portraits of Suzhou celebrities inscribed on stone tablets from the Spring and Autumn period to the Qing Dynasty. With a well-conceived layout, the entire garden exudes an air of classical sanctity, showing the excellent garden architectural art of the Song Dynasty. The Canglang Pavilion, Lion Grove, Humble Administrator’s Garden, and Lingering Garden are the four classical gardens built in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, respectively. They all have been designated on World Heritage List.

Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuozheng Yuan)
Chinese classic gardens can be generally divided into two categories: royal gardens, represented by the Summer Palace in Beijing, and private mansions represented by those in Suzhou. The Humble Administrator's Garden, located at 178 Dongbei Street, Suzhou, is one of four great Chinese gardens. At 51,950 square meters, it is the largest garden in Suzhou, and generally considered the finest garden in southern China.

The garden's site was earlier a scholar garden during the Tang Dynasty; then a monastery garden for Dahong Temple during the Yuan Dynasty. In 1513, during the Ming Dynasty reign of Emperor Zhengde, an administrator named Wang Xianchen appropriated the temple and converted it into a private villa with gardens, which were constructed by digging lakes and piling the resultant earth into artificial islands. The garden was designed in collaboration with the renowned Ming artist, Wen Zhengming, and was as large as today's garden, with numerous trees and pavilions. The Wang family sold the garden several years later, and it has changed hands many times since. The garden was split up in the later Ming dynasty, and it remained neglected until the Qing Dynasty reigns of Emperors Shunzhi and Kangxi, when the garden was extensively rebuilt with major modifications to its earlier plan. During Emperor Qianlong's reign, the gardens were again divided into the Shu Yuan (Book of Study Garden) and the Fu Yuan (Restored Garden).

Today's garden is only very loosely related to its earliest version, but closely resembles its late Qing appearance, with numerous pavilions and bridges set among a maze of connected pools and islands. It consists of three major parts set about a large lake: the central part (Zhuozheng Yuan), the eastern part (once called Guitianyuanju, Dwelling Upon Return to the Countryside), and a western part (the Supplementary Garden). The house lies in the south of the garden. In total, the garden contains 48 different buildings with 101 tablets, 40 steles, 21 precious old trees, and over 700 Suzhou-style bonsai.

A treasure house of architectural art, calligraphy works, carvings, and paintings, the garden was listed as a key historical monument under state protection, a national special scenic site and a nation AAAA tourist attraction. 

Lion Grove Garden (Shizilin)
The Lion Grove Garden is located at No.23 Yuanlin Road, in the northeast of Suzhou. It is one of the four most famous and representative classic gardens in Suzhou (the other three being the Surging Wave Pavilion, Lingering Garden and Humble Administrator's Garden).

First constructed in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the Lion Grove Garden is famed for oddly-shaped rocks and numerous deep caves. It enjoys a reputation of being the “Kingdom of Rockeries,” which occupy an area of 1,153 square meters. The rockeries are arranged into eastern and western parts. The eastern part contains dry rockeries, and the western part, water rockeries. All the Lion Grove Garden is like a large labyrinth, being the most devious and complicated of all the rockeries in classical Chinese Gardens. Nine-Lion Peak is a huge peak with many holes, like nine lovely lions standing side by side. Interesting Pavilion holds a horizontal inscribed board with two Chinese characters written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, meaning “Truly interesting.” The pavilion has painted pillars and carved beams, resplendent and magnificent, showing an imperial manner different from other exquisite buildings in southern China.

The Lion Grove Garden boasts 22 buildings of varied types, 25 tablets and plateaux, 71 steles inscribed with the famous Calligraphy Collection of the Listening to Rain Tower, 23 brick carvings, five carved wooden screens, and 13 valuable old trees such as ginkgo biloba L., pinus bungeana Zucc.

Lingering Garden (Liuyuan)
The Lingering Garden was listed as a cultural relic of national importance in 1961. Covering an area of 23,310 square meters, the Lingering Garden is the best preserved among all the Suzhou gardens. It is also one of the four most famous gardens in China (the other three being the Summer Palace in Beijing; the Mountain Summer Resort in Chengde; and the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou). With a history of more than 400 years, the Lingering Garden has changed hands several times. Each owner did his best to perfect the garden. It was first built in 1593 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) by a retired official named Xu Tai. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it was bought by Liu Shu. As a calligraphy lover, he carved masterpieces on both sides of the corridors of the buildings. He had also collected unusually-shaped stones in the garden. The succeeding owners followed his model when doing restoration work. Almost demolished in the 1930s, the garden was repaired with sponsorship by the government and then opened to the public.

It is celebrated for its artistic way of dealing with the spaces among various kinds of architectural form. Buildings make up one third of the total area of the garden, the hall of which being the most remarkable in Suzhou. The garden is separated into the middle, eastern, northern and western parts. The ancestral temple and the house lie to the south of the garden.

The number of steles in the Lingering Garden is not surpassed by any other garden in Suzhou. Masterfully inscribed with the works of over 100 calligraphers in the Jin, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, they illustrate the evolution of Chinese calligraphy during the past 1,000 years. The Garden is on the World Heritage List, a key historical monument under state protection and a national AAAA tourist attraction.

He Garden (Heyuan)
He Garden, originally named Jixiao Mountain Village, is located at Huayuan Lane in Xuningmen Street on the north bank of the ancient Canal in Yangzhou. An official surnamed He of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) from Hubei Province spent 13 years building it as his residence, hence the garden’s name. It is the best preserved private garden in Yangzhou.

The garden is open and looks spacious due to its clever layout though in fact it is not that large. Great originality is much in evidence in the design of houses, pavilions and rockeries, and the positioning of plants, flowers and stones. Unlike normal rockeries, all those in the He Garden sit comfortably against walls. The boat-based chamber sits on tiles and stones which have been set out to resemble water. A double-corridor system gives access to the east and west gardens and the houses in the garden.

The He Garden is a Chinese architectural art with some Western influences. All the iron for railings and window glass were imported from abroad. The houses are also decorated with valuable Western items. The Garden is divided into three parts: the northern part is the rear garden; the central part is a courtyard in a mixed Chinese-Western style, a model of the combination of Chinese architectural art with Western style in this field; and the southeastern part of it is an area of guarinite-built houses. Rated as a representative work of the Yangzhou gardening in the Qing Dynasty, it is now listed as a unit of the cultural relics under State protection.

Jichang Garden
The Jichang Garden, also named the Garden for Ease of Mind, is located at the eastern foot of Huishan Hill and north side of Huishan Temple, is a noted ancient garden in southern China, having an area of about one hectare. It is a pearl of the architecture of the Ming Dynasty in Wuxi.

In the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Qin Jin, a military official in Nanjing, made the place into a villa garden. Later it was renamed Jichang Garden. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was so impressed by its design that he ordered an imitation of the garden to be built in the Summer Palace in Beijing, which was named the Garden of Harmonious Interest.