The Qianlong Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour / Emperor Qianlong South Inspection Tour

6 scroll (7)

Tiger hill

The famous poet and statesman of the Song Dynasty Su Shi (1037 - 1101) once said: "To be in Suzhou and not to visit Tiger Hill is a reason to regret it all my life."
He Liu, founder of Suzhou and king of Wu, fell in battle in 496 BC. e. It is said that he was buried on this hill by his son, Fu Chai, along with 3000 swords from an extensive collection collected by his father. It was said that within three days after the funeral, a white tiger was seen at He Liu's grave, and from that time on, the garden was named Tiger Hill.
At the top of the hill is the Yunyan Temple with a pagoda about 48 m high. The pagoda was built on the site of a former wooden pagoda during the Song Dynasty (959-961) and is a seven-story building in the shape of an octahedron.


Not far from the top of the hill is the well of the "tea sage" Lu Yu. Lu Yu (733 - 804)
Lu Yu (733 - 804) was the most famous tea scientist in the Middle Kingdom, who wrote the canonical treatise "Tea Canon", in which he systematized the accumulated knowledge about the tea tree, from its cultivation to various tea drinking traditions. It was on Tiger Hill, where Lu Yu lived, that he wrote the last part of his work. Near his house, the scientist built a well, which has survived to this day, the water in which today is considered one of the cleanest in all of China.