Tianjing Rongyuan Demonstration area

Yangzhou, known as the first city of the Grand Canal, is celebrated for its cultural heritage and classical gardens. The Tianjing Rongyuan demonstration zone occupies a site on the south side of Nianxiang Yuan in Hanjiang District, close to the Slender West Lake scenic area, a location that offered the design team an opportunity to fuse landscape with local cultural identity. The design translates classical Chinese painting into contemporary landscape language, creating a scroll-like sequence of scenes that unfolds along the visitor's path. The hotel-style main gate establishes a strong urban presence, its dignified and warm proportions rooted in Yangzhou's architectural tradition and reinforcing the ceremonial sequence of arrival. A covered corridor continues the curved roof language of the gate, with the two side roofs forming an arc-shaped picture frame that pulls the architecture, water feature and rear garden into a single composed view. The poetry of natural setting is expressed through a winding path that leads visitors into secluded courtyards. Chinese tallow trees paired with ornamental rocks evoke mountain streams and flowing springs, while light and shadow move continuously across the space. Passing through the gate, a bamboo grove opens the view dramatically, creating a shift in both scene and emotion. The transition between materials and spaces is also a shift in mood, with pure natural flower borders accompanying the visitor along the path. The project was developed by Yangzhou Chengjian State-owned Assets Holding Group and Jiangsu Huajian Construction, with landscape design by the China Academy of Art Landscape Architecture and Design Research Institute.