Landscaped Gardens in east China's Suzhou City, known as the "Oriental Venice " because of the legendary Italian traveler Marco Polo, is attracting an uninterrupted flow of visitors from both home and abroad.

While marveling at the delicate design containing hills, ponds, pavilions, terraces, corridors and towers, most visitors to the 2, 500-year-old city in Jiangsu Province probably don't know that these picturesque gardens, now on the World Heritage list, were almost completely destroyed before the founding of New China in 1949.

But for the efforts by the government and the local people's love for traditional Chinese architectural art, the gardens wouldn 't have been restored and renovated to its original splendor, said Xie Xiaosi, a 95-year-old resident in Suzhou.

The gardens of Suzhou can be dated back to as early as about 514 B.C. when the city was built. There were as many as 200 gardens dotted in the city in its prime during the 16th to 18th centuries.

The gardens have long been considered as the quintessence of Chinese horticulture. The World Heritage Committee refers to Suzhou as the cradle of horticulture in the world.

Many of these gardens, however, suffered serious damage from wars in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The "Garden of Leisure," for example, built in 1596 with an area of 20,000 square meters, was destroyed by the Japanese invaders and later used as stables by Kuomintang troops in the 1940s.

In the early 1950s, a huge campaign was launched to restore the gardens of Suzhou. The best craftsmen from all over China were called in to restore historical doors, windows, bricks, tiles and furniture as well as calligraphy and paintings in the gardens.

In the last 20 years, 200 million yuan has been spent on restoring the gardens. A number of research institutes have also been actively involved in the restoration work.

More than 50 gardens have been restored. About 30 of these are now open to the public. The Suzhou municipal government and more than 130 factories have moved out of the old city area to help preserve the gardens. More than 800 historical lanes and about 200 bridges have been restored.

"Suzhou gardens are unparalleled. Their preservation and protection by the Chinese is internationally recognized," said Bernd Von Droste, director of UNESCO's World Heritage Center.

Suzhou gardens were put on UNESCO's World Heritage list in December 1997.

Xu Wentao, director of the Suzhou Gardens Bureau, said that the gardens are Suzhou's most valuable asset. If it was not due to the efforts of locals and the city's government, the gardens wouldn't have survived. (Xinhua)