Tiger Hill is a symbol of the ancient city of Suzhou, which is very spectacular. It lives in the courtyard of Tiger Hill Pagoda, formerly known as Yunyan Temple Pagoda. It was founded in the 6th year of Zhou Xiande in the Five Dynasties (959) and completed in the 2nd year of Stegosaurus in the Northern Song Dynasty (96 1). It is a pavilion-style building with brick and wood eaves. The tower body is reduced layer by layer from bottom to top, octagonal, with seven layers, and its shape and outline are curved longitudinally. The existing brick tower is 47.5 meters high, and the upper iron gate no longer exists. It was burned seven times from Song Dynasty to Qing Dynasty. When it was repaired, it was found that there were stone letters, prayer flags, bronze mirrors and bronze buddhas in the tower. At present, the vertical line from the center of the tower to the center of the tower has moved 2.34 meters to the north, and will not move after reinforcement. According to the research, the tower is built on the hilltop slope with high southwest and low northeast, and the thickness of artificial fill is different, which leads to uneven settlement and inclination of the tower. When the tower was built, the inclination was found, and the deviation was corrected step by step, but it was not controlled. In the eleventh year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1638), the seventh floor was rebuilt in the opposite direction, and the tower was "banana-shaped". 1957 and 1978 were reinforced twice. Today, the tower stands tall and looks forward to welcoming guests.
Suzhou Tiger Hill, known as the "Oriental Leaning Tower", combines the essence of oriental architectural art, which was built more than 300 years earlier than the Leaning Tower of Pisa built in 13 century.
Duanliangtang is located at the southern foot of Huqiu Mountain, commonly known as "Ershanmen". It was built in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the first year of Yuan Dynasty. The main hall is a flat roof with a single cornice and a backing, with a rectangular plane, three wide rooms and two deep rooms, with yellow cornices. The internal beam structure is unique, and the top of the column is slightly smaller than the column, which is circular; The beam is slightly curved, like a half moon, so it is called the moon beam; The girder is made by splicing two logs, and two moon beams are placed on both sides of the middle column. If the beam is broken, it is called "broken beam hall", also known as "double beam hall" The beam span is small and the load is heavy, saving wood. In ancient architecture, it belongs to the type of "four rafters and three columns for distraction" The whole hall is beautiful and solemn, and it is also a "show of the south" and a "hero of the north".
According to legend, the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty heard from his servants that Suzhou craftsmen were good at building temples and halls, so he made a decree to build a temple gate in Huqiu Mountain within a time limit, but only bits and pieces of wood were allowed, and nails were not allowed, which worried the craftsmen. A craftsman named "Sailuban" brainstormed and planned a method to share the weight of the temple by using the structural functions of jacking force and lifting force of the bucket arch, bodhisattva roof, pipa crane and transverse lattice, which solved the problem of the bearing capacity of broken beams and broken wood supporting the roof, and finally completed the temple gate as scheduled, becoming a wonderful work in the history of ancient architecture.