Tiger Hill, Suzhou


[file:2024-Apr Suzhou - Tiger Hill Scenic Area (Hu Qiu) 虎丘 - img 12.jpg|thumb|Thousand People Rock, a plaza on a lower level from the Tiger Hill Pagoda]
Tiger Hill or Huqiu is a hill in Suzhou, China. It is a tourist destination that is known for its natural environment and historic sites. The hill's name is said to come from the fact it looks like a crouching tiger. Another legend states that a white tiger appeared on the hill to guard it following the burial of King Helü. The hill is also sometimes referred to in parallel with Shizishan, another mountain in Suzhou which resembles a sitting lion.

History

According to the Book of Historical Documents, King Helü of Wu was buried on the hill, then called the "Hill Emerging from the Sea". Its name derives from a legend that three days after his burial a white tiger appeared squatting on the hill.
The Yunyan Temple was founded on the hill in 327. It was particularly favored under the Song and was last refurbished in 1871, repairing the damage of the Taiping Rebellion. It was finally abandoned after the Second World War and Chinese Civil War.

Geography

Tiger Hill has an elevation of over and covers about.

Tourism

The hill has been a tourist destination for over a thousand years, as is evident from the poetry and calligraphy carved into rocks on the hill. Its features include:
  • Sword-Testing Rock: a rock in two pieces supposedly cleanly cleft by King Helü using a Wu sword of extraordinary sharpness.
  • Sword Pond : a small rectangular pond, beneath which a treasure of some 3,000 swords are believed to have been buried. It is believed that the Wu King Helü was buried next to the lake wall. Efforts excavating the site were made in the 1950s, but eventually were stopped because the archeologists found the Leaning Pagoda's foundations resting on the site.
  • Spring of Simplicity and Honesty: a well that, according to legend, first appeared as a spring to an exhausted monk carrying water up the entire length of the hill.
  • Tiger Hill Pagoda: a pagoda that stands seven stories high and leans more than from the perpendicular at its highest point, locally reckoned as the Second Leaning Tower under Heaven.
  • Lu Yu Well: a well attributed to Lu Yu, author of the Tea Classic.
  • Thousand Person Rock : a rock-based plaza at the bottom of the Leaning Tower Plaza. Legend says after the burial of Wu King Helü, his son Fuchai commanded the murder of some thousand craftsmen who were involved in his father's burial in order to conceal the exact location of the grave.
  • Wanjing Villa: contains more than 600 penjing with two display areas, a tree stump and water/stone penjing.
  • Penjing Collection and Museum.