Artificial hills, an important element of gardens built by traditional scholars, are ideal landscapes designed to integrate man and nature.

In his A Record of the Gardens of Jiangnan, Mr. Tong Jun wrote: “Setting rocks is difficult, but rocks have natural shapes. Piling rocks needs skills. Artificial hills are half natural and half artificial.” Artificial hills come from nature, but are superior to natural things. Artificial hills, though referred to as artificial, are true landscapes in scholars’ minds, and are a type of ideal landscape.