I am a huge fan of architecture, and of course being in Asia, I love to see ancient and traditional Chinese/Japanese/Aboriginal architecture. But a dirty secret of mine is that I'm so done with Chinese architecture. I spent so much time both in Taiwan and China going to every special temple and home. I've essentially seen it all and while every place is unique in some way, I've failed to be impressed by places I've been to recently.
That was until I went to the place above. It's part of a very large traditional home that is over 300 years old. I'd never been to this place because from pictures it was a lot like other places I have been to. You can't see it in here, but over to the left is the main home, and some traditional garden. Nice but nothing new.
Then I saw a picture of this pond and special pavilion and thought it was worth a look. The front building is just an open space to enjoy the view and weather (it was over 100 degrees on this day). while the building in back is essentially one large room on each of the two floors. At the moment they have tables and chairs there and it seems like a nice place to spend the day studying if it's "winter." With this place being free, I may just have to stop by and spend an afternoon studying when the weather permits.
All in all it was a good find, and there are some other stories about this place that I will share tomorrow. Most importantly this place has reminded me that it's always worth going to check out a place for yourself, even if you feel like you already know what it will be like.
