Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai. In contrast with the Japanese, the Chinese go for a rather more rugged look with their “rockeries”
Verdant moss, soaring bamboo, sparse desert shrubs, pine trees so ancient and pruned they have to be propped up, perfectly raked gravel studded with granite boulders: stunning gardens in temples at the Daitoku-Ji complex.
The Silver Pavilion (Ginkakuji). The beautiful grounds at Ginkakuji had the first raked gravel garden we’ve seen, and boy, it’s a doozy. The cone-with-the-top-chopped-off (a conical frustrum, the internet informs me) is around five feet high, and the main bed of gravel is about a foot deep.