☰Yu Garden

A classical Ming dynasty garden tucked inside the Old Town, laid out in the 1560s by a wealthy official as a retirement gift for his father. Just two hectares but ingeniously partitioned: more than forty pavilions, halls, rockeries and ponds connected by zigzag bridges and moon gates designed to make the space feel endless. The centrepiece Exquisite Jade Rock is a 3-metre limestone boulder said to have been intended for the Imperial Palace before its barge sank. Get here early — by mid-morning the bazaar around it becomes a crush.