Lingering garden(Chinese:留园；pinyin:liúyuán) was built in 1583 of by Xu Taishi, a bureaucrat of the Ming court, as his private residence. Today the garden is separated into the eastern, central, northern and western parts. The central part features a man-made mountain and lakeside scenes, resembling a long scroll of traditional Chinese painting. The eastern part is noted for its joyous groupings of gardens and elegant buildings; the western part is for the enchantment of woody hills; and the northern part, cottages with bamboo fences and idyllic scenes. The number of steles in the Lingering Garden has never been surpassed by any other garden in Suzhou. Masterfully inscribed with the works of over 100 calligraphers in the Jin, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, they illustrate the evolution of Chinese calligraphy during the past 1,000 years.