Introduction of Small Golden Hill
Walk through Xu’s Garden, we come to the Small Golden Hill. Somebody might ask: Yangzhou has West Lake, and Yangzhou has Slender West Lake, Zhenjiang has Golden Hill, and Yangzhou has Small Golden Hill, one is Slender, and the other is Small, why Yangzhou people are so humble? Let’s see a set of couplet written by an elder Dean Li Yaru of Yangzhou’s Traditional Chinese Painting College: Praise its slender by borrowing a corner of West Lake, cherish its smallness by moving a bit of Golden Hill” Dean Li said drolly: Slender lake means slim, small hill means refinement, which also point out the goodness of Yangzhou’s garden: Good at borrowing but not fall into conventional pattern”
Small Golden Hill is the biggest island in Slender West Lake, and also the place with most of the buildings in the Scenic Area. Wind Kiosk, Blow stage, Musical instrument Room, Osmanthus fragrance study house, chess room, Moon temple all locates in this place. Here is also a history for the name of Small Golden Hill: Once upon a time, two monks from Yangzhou and Zhenjiang were chatting, monks from Zhenjiang said: Hills hates Yangzhou’s vulgar, many hills are unwilling to cross the Yangtze River” Of course Yangzhou’s monk was not agreed with him, so they bet by playing chess. And Yangzhou’s monk won and named this place Small Golden Hill. He hanged a couplet in the middle of yard. “Time flies and everything is empty, as small as a fist, golden hill want cross the river.” It delivered Zhenjiang’s Golden Hill only by a word “small”
This strange rock is the memento from Rock tributes in Song Dynasty. In ancient China, the transport counted with ship, ten ships as one batch. Transit the flowers and Rocks by ship was called “Flowers and Rocks Batch”. Emperor in Northern Song Dynasty Song Hui Zong loved rare flowers and rocks. In his 60 year birthday, he decided to build a Wanzhou mountain in capital Kai Feng Town. This stalactite from Guangxi, lost in Yangzhou because of FANG LA peasant uprising during transit. And this is the biggest stalactites in Yangzhou. It was accumulated by calcium carbonate in karst caves. Look, isn’t this a bonsai of ship？-Stalactite
Let’s walk along the winding road in the hill, and we will step to the Wind Kiosk in Small Golden Hill. Wind Kiosk is the commending height in Slender West Lake Scenic Area. This is the place where Mr. Zhu Ziqing said “Best place in Slender West Lake to watch water, and also proper place to enjoy the moon”. There is a couplet in Wind Kiosk” Endless wind and moon, whereto release the emotion? Kiosk is the same as before, I envy its mist and water” The name of Wind Kiosk was quoted from this couplet. This is the meaning of “hill is precious for its level instead of its height; water is brilliant for its winding instead of wideness. This is the wonderful place of Slender West Lake and Small Golden Hill---Wind Kiosk.