TianXiangXiaoZhu or Heaven Fragrance House is located inside Suzhou Library on Renmin Road in the urban area of Suzhou City. In 2013 it was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level by the State Council of China.
TianXiangXiaoZhu is a villa garden featuring both Chinese and Western architectural styles. It covers an area of 2,664 square meters (including garden area of 1,265 square meters) and has a building area of 1,033 square meters. The residential buildings occupy the west part of the garden. The remaining buildings, composed of lounge, main hall and eastern and western compartments, sit north and face south. The three buildings, all built with flush gable roofs covered with round green glazed tiles, are connected with corridors in both lower and upper levels. The door lintels in these buildings are carved on the bricks with characters such as "Yunyu (full of greenness)", "Liangxiang (cool and fragrant)", "Zhenqu (true delight)", "Dichen (wash off dust)", "Xuansheng (Choose a scenic place)", "Qingyuan (Clean water source)" and "Zhengben (Being upright)". The interior decoration is traditional. People can see doors and windows, partition doors and screens are carved with flowers, ancient coins, birds and animals, and calligraphy works of Wang Xizhi(303-361, a famous calligrapher in Eastern Jin Dynasty), Cai Xiang(1012-1067, a famous calligrapher in Northern Song Dynasty), Zhao Zi’ang (1254-1322,a famous poet, painter and calligrapher in the early Yuan Dynasty) and so on and so forth. The garden is east to the residence. It is a rectangular garden with long side in horizontal direction. In the garden there is a hill constructed with soil and rocks. A stone path leads to the top where a hexagonal pavilion stands. On the east of the pavilion is a platform, surrounded by trees. The hill is embraced by a pool, dotted with rockeries and flowery footpaths. North to the pool are winding corridors. TianXiangXiaoZhu possesses a typical architectural style of the Republic of China era as the layout, structure and decoration taste can trace root to that of Suzhou classical gardens, and materials, construction techniques, and some other characteristics are absorbed from western architecture.
