Shanghai Yu Garden Ticket

Yu Garden is located in the northeastern part of the Shanghai Yu Garden Tourist and Commercial Area, adjacent to the Shanghai City God Temple and the Shanghai Yu Garden Tourist Shopping Mall. It is a renowned classical garden in Jiangnan style and a famous historical site known both at home and abroad. In 1982, it was approved by the State Council as a "National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit."

Yu Garden was first built during the Jiajing and Wanli periods of the Ming Dynasty, with a history of over 450 years. The garden's owner, Pan Yunduan, once served as the Provincial Governor of Sichuan. To allow his father to enjoy his later years in comfort, Pan Yunduan began in the Jihai year of the Jiajing period (1559 AD) to pile rocks, dig ponds, build pavilions, and plant bamboo on his own vegetable field, creating the garden. After more than 20 years of painstaking effort, Yu Garden was completed.

The character "Yu" carries the meanings of "peace" and "safety." Naming the garden "Yu Garden" implies "bringing joy and comfort to one's elderly parents." Initially, Yu Garden occupied over 70 mu of land and was meticulously designed by the renowned Ming Dynasty garden master Zhang Nanyang, who also personally supervised the construction. The entire garden features grand scale and beautiful scenery.

Currently, Yu Garden covers an area of 2 hectares, with staggered pavilions, rugged rockeries, and lush greenery. It is known for its serene and elegant beauty, exquisite delicacy, and the characteristic of creating a sense of vastness within a small space, reflecting the artistic style of Jiangnan garden architecture during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Within Yu Garden, historical sites such as the "Library Building" — the birthplace of the "Shanghai School of Painting and Calligraphy" — and the "Hall of Spring Heralding" — the command post of the Shanghai Small Sword Society Uprising — are still preserved. Ancient scholars have praised Yu Garden as "the most uniquely beautiful garden in the Southeast" and "the crown of famous gardens in the Southeast."

Many domestic and international political leaders and celebrities have visited Yu Garden, making it a rare cultural icon of traditional heritage in Shanghai.