Du Fu Thatched Cottage
The Du Fu Thatched Cottage is located beside the Huanhua Brook in the west suburbs of Chengdu.
Du Fu lived in a transitional period from prosperity to decline of the Tang Dynasty, experiencing the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763) in the mid-Tang. So many of his poems reflected the realistic social scenarios at that time. Du Fu's poems had significant influence on Chinese literature development, and therefore he is esteemed as the Poem Saint. In 759, Du Fu was exiled to Chengdu. He set up a hut beside the Huanhua Brook, and lived there for about four years. During this time, he wrote about 240 poems, many of which win universal praise.
After the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), his posterity built gardens and a memorial hall on the site of the thatched collage. The present architecture was formed after two large-scale renovations in the 13th year (1500) of the Hongzhi reign period in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the 16th year (1811) of the Jiaqing reign period of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
