Shuzhuang Garden is the most inventive public garden on Gulangyu, built by a Taiwanese exile who integrated the coastline into the design with genuine ingenuity. The approach conceals the sea until the last moment, then reveals it through a gate in a wall — a classic Chinese garden move of concealment and disclosure, but executed here with the ocean rather than an ornamental pond as the payoff. The coastal rocks within the garden are arranged to channel and amplify wave sounds in ways that create an experience of the sea that changes with the tide.
The garden contains a series of pavilions, bridges, and rock formations in the traditional Suzhou style, but the scale is larger and the sea views give it an openness unusual in classical Chinese garden design. The bridge across the tidal inlet is particularly well positioned, with views in both directions along the coast. The garden is at its most atmospheric at high tide when waves break against the rocks inside the walls, and on overcast days when the sea and sky are the same grey and the garden's formal elements stand out sharply against them.