Imperial Stele Garden and Forest of Steles

Imperial Stele Garden and Forest of Steles

The Imperial Stele Garden and Forest of Steles is a cultural relic protection unit of Tianjin Municipality.

Imperial Stele Garden and Forest of Steles

Address: Within the "Yangcun Little World" at the western end of Yongyang West Road, Yangcun Town, Wuqing District, Tianjin

The Imperial Stele Garden and Forest of Steles is located within the "Yangcun Little World" at the western end of Yongyang West Road, Yangcun Town, Wuqing District, Tianjin. It was completed in September 1997. With a southern Chinese garden architectural layout, it features a classical-style gatehouse, a hundred-meter stele corridor, three stele pavilions, surrounded by walls over three meters high. Inside, there are more than 40 well-preserved ancient stele cultural relics, making it one of the city’s most significant collections of ancient steles on display. It serves as an important example of “effective protection, rational utilization, and strengthened management” of large-scale outdoor stone carving relics.

Many of the stele relics in the Imperial Stele Garden and Forest of Steles are closely related to the history of Wuqing District. Among them, five date from the Jin Dynasty, eight from the Ming Dynasty, and the rest from the Qing Dynasty. Notably, the “Yangcun Government Office Stele” from the 25th year of the Wanli reign in the Ming Dynasty (1597), the “Reversed Flow for Water Transport Stele” inscribed by Emperor Kangxi in the 49th year of the Kangxi reign in the Qing Dynasty (1710), and the imperial poetry stele inscribed by Emperor Qianlong are all important physical materials for studying the history of Tianjin, canal transport, and water conservancy.

The inscriptions on the many exhibited steles possess high artistic value in calligraphy.