Yuan Mei
The Geyuan Garden was known as "the garden of the long-lived "Ganoderma"" during the Ming Dynasty. In 1818 (the 22nd year of the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor), salt distribution commissioner Huang Zhiyun bought the land and rebuilt the garden as a private retreat. Huang Zhiyun loved bamboo, believing that they were as persistent, modest, straightforward, and loyal as a good man. A cluster of three bamboo leaves resembles the Chinese character "个" (pronounced “ge”). This was also noted by Yuan Mei, a writer during the Qing Dynasty: "the moonlight made the bamboo shadows hundreds of the character "ge"". The owner chose the name ”Ge Yuan” for his garden to correspond to his name, "Zhi Yun" (, which also means "bamboo").