Research on the Distribution and Scale Evolution of Suzhou Gardens under the Urbanization Process from the Tang to the Qing Dynasty

Suzhou city was the cultural centre of ancient south China. It continues urban pattern more than 800 years ago. gardens are essence Chinese gardening art, as well valuable world heritage site. This paper compared evolution in distribution and scale among five historical periods, discussed influence urbanization on gardening. revealed that: (1) The affected by layout changes political commercial city; (2) mainly available land within wealth its owner; (3) cityscape ‘half occupied gardens’ largely resulted from rapidly increasing number small courtyard Qing Dynasty; (4) interior layouts. social development cities can affect gardens. At same time, popularization art also optimizes cityscape.