Former Bei's Residence / Bei's Garden

The local call it "the Bei's Garden". Built in 1934, the Bei's residence was then owned by Bei Zuyi, who was the descendant of Bei Runsheng, both from the glorious family in Suzhou. Bei Zuyi later became the president of Bank of China in 1945. He is also the father of the celebrated architect, I.M Pei.

The Bei's Residence has reinforced concrete structure with Art Deco style decoration supplemented by Chinese symbolic elements. To the east of the entrance are inscribed Chinese characters meaning longevity in 100 styles. The garden in front of the building features all basic components of a typical Chinese garden: Taihu rocks, bridge, pond, pavilion and flowers, etc. Something special in the garden is the stone pavilion in Islamic style, unadorned but exotic.