Location
This small park is located in the heart of Shanghai's old Chinese quarter and links to Yuyuan Market.
 
History
Built in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty in the Suzhou style by a high official, Pan Yunduan, in honor of his father, the garden has maintained its classic beauty over the centuries. The Yuyuan Garden was once considered the best garden in Southeast China. The Pavilion of Spring in the northeast section of the park is famous for being the headquarters of the anti-imperialist "Little Sword Society", which in 1853 led an uprising against the Qing rule and occupied Shanghai for 17 months. Weapons, coins and other objects used by the society are now housed in an exhibition hall.
 
Introduction
A renowned traditional landscape garden in Jiangnan, it is also a historical site and tourist attraction famous at home and abroad. It was built by a high official named Pan during the Ming Dynasty. It has been changed and rebuilt over hundreds of years by different descendents of the original builder. The garden is a virtual maze of caves, gardens, rockeries, paths, bridges, and buildings. Even though many people have had a hand in rebuilding the garden over the centuries, all of its features are seamlessly blended together. Every corner you turn has a new surprise and a totally different view. It is often the case that a person has come across a single area from three different directions, and doesn’t realize he has kept coming to the same place. It was ingeniously built and shows the amazing architectural style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are also hundreds of precious stele carvings which were done by famous artists in the past. There are six main tourist sections in the Yu Garden. Each section has its own special sights.

After entering the garden, for a while you may see a big rockery with springs and small waterfalls. This has a reputation that for being the best rockery in the Jiangnan district. The building "Cui Xiu Tang" is the main sight in this section. From the buildings "Yu He Xie" to" Wan Hua Lou", this part is full of exquisite corridors, rivers, rockeries and courtyards. The stone hill – Jade Exquisite (Yu Ling Long in Chinese) is the treasure of the Yu Garden. It is praised as the No.1 of the three famous stones in the Jiangnan district. Facing the Jade Exquisite is the building "Yu Hua Tang". Inside it, it is a traditional sanctum in Ming Dynasty. All the desks and chairs are made of precious rosewood. The Inner Garden is also called the East Garden. In the past it was a separate garden but now it belongs to the Yu Garden. It was first built in 1709 (in the Qing Dynasty). There you can see a lot of rockeries, halls, pavilions and corridors. All of the buildings are strewn at random.

The main building in this garden is Qing Xue Tang. It is exquisite and elegant and has the features of Chinese traditional landscape gardens. Outside of the garden, there are many famous sights such as water lily pools. A lot of brick carvings, stone carvings, mud sculptures and wood sculptures are interspersed in the Yu Garden. These not only have a long history but also have extremely exquisite designs. Among them, The Eight Immortals Going Across the Sea and Guanghan Palace have high value as cultural relics.