Grand View Park

Grand View Park (Daguan Gongyuan) is known for the Grant View Tower, was built here in 1690, It sits on the northern shores of the Dian Lake. Today the Park includes a nursery with hills, potted plants, children's playground, rowing boats, rockeries and a pavilion and where you can overlook Lake Dian. The view from Grand View Tower has inspired many Chinese poets. Their poems can be found inscribed in and around the Hall. The couplets of 180 words written by Sun Ran are the most famous. He was a poverty-stricken intellectual in Kunming during the reign of Emperor Qian Long in the Qing dynasty. His couplets describe the beauty of Kunming and the history of Yunnan.

The Park of the Grand View Pavilion in the western part of Kunming races the Dianchi Lake in the south and the Western Mountains in the west. The pavilion, with a history of more than three hundred years, is a three-floor square structure with flying eaves and golden-lacquered ornamentation.

The top floor of the pavilion provides an all-embracing view of the vast Dianchi Lake and the peaks of the Western Mountains. A 180character couplet is hanging down the pavilion, which is lauded as "number one couplet past and present". The Park of the Grand View Pavilion is the most fascinating garden in urban Kunming.