The Sword Pool and Huqiu Pagoda are the most well-known view spots in this landscape. There are three reasons why it is called : one is, it looks like a flat sword while overlooking; second is—according to the legend—here buried three thousands of swords as mortuary object of He Lv, the king of Wu Kingdom; third is emperor Chin and Sun Quan once came here digging for swords, which made a pool here. In fact, the pool was shaped by nature. The pool is the most mysterious places in Huqiu landscape because the entrance of He Lv tomb is here.

    The Sword Testing Stone is one of famous stones in Huqiu. It is said that in Spring and Autumn Age (770 BC-476 BC), He Lv, the king of Wu Kingdom, in order to control the southeast of China, he ordered Mo Ye and his wife—a most well-known couple specialized in sword casting at the time to cast swords. After finished, the couple took the sword to Huqiu and dedicated it to the King He Lv. For testing the sword, the king flung the sword toward the stone, and momentarily the stone split into two pieces. It is common to know that no one could use a sword to split such a huge stone into pieces how sharp the sword it is. As a matter of fact, the stone is a tuff formed in volcano eruption, and after weathered day by day it cracked and formed a line, which looks like it is cut by a sword.

    This monumental archway is made with three gates and four pillars and was named Small Mountain Wudang. The stone bridge is named the small Wudan Bridge, also called Zhonghe Bridge. In the front, there is a stone bridge; at the middle, there is the monumental archway, and behind, there is a rockery. But it is a pity that today we could not see the old well with the inscription on the forehead: The World of Wu Kingdom Ends and Chu Kingdom Comes. The Mountain Wudang is a famous one in China; it locates at Jun County, Hubei Province, where was the land of Chu Kingdom in ancient time, and was noted for its beautiful scenery. And here, the inscription indicates that the scenery here is much similar to the Mountain Wudang. The rockery behind the archway is singular and exquisite; the biggest Taihu stone with height of over three meters. Among the rockery, there is a Kwan-yin cave called On-tide Kwan-yin. Yet, it’s a big pity we cannot enjoy the sight of the joss now.

    Sun Wu was an ancient military strategist in ancient China, leaving a book Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which is the earliest military strategy in the world. At that time even the king of Wu Kingdom showed much respect to Sun. The Sun Wu Pavilion was built for memorializing this great person, on which verses by Zhang Aiping in 1985 was inscribed:“Understanding The Art of War ensures you winning any battles; the practices of martial arts by girls leave a good influence behind.”

    Here is a gathering of over 600 basins of potted landscape?it covers an area of 25 acres and the building area of 144 square meters. There are two scenery display areas, the one is stump-bonsai display area, and the one is water-stone-bonsai display area. Su style potted bonsai is an important school in our country, originally starting from Tang Dynasty (618?907) and Song Dynasty (960?1279), flourishing in Ming Dynasty (1368?1644) and Qing Dynasty (1616?1911) and developing further in modern time. Suzhou’s bonsai is based on the tree-stump bonsai. The traditional features are six stages, three trays and one top. That is, there are two branches at left and right from top to bottom formed three stages, and a block at the top. All the leaves are round. As it seems neat and noble, people used to call it as academic school. In recent years, Suzhou’s bonsai began to depart from the traditional way, boldly make use of the cutting skill, pay more attention on the natural state, and try to decorate it according to the principles of Chinese painting.