Shen Garden has a history of over 800 years. In the early days, it was in large scale, covering as large as over 70 mu (a unit of area), being the famous ancient garden in the ancient city of Shaoxing. It is a private garden of a rich businessman whose family name is "Shen" in the southern Song Dynasty, when comes the name.

Shen Garden is the place where secret love found its expression. Here the poet Lu You let his feelings flow through the poem Hairpin of Gold Phoenix, for his wife Tang Wan. The beautiful gardens, ponds, and nice pavilions of the daytime, become a striking combination of lights and sounds of Chinese musical instruments and opera at night, when the garden seems to be magical.

Shen Garden is a Chinese classical garden with a tragic love story. According to history, the great poet Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty was forced to divorce his wife, whose name was Tang Wan. Later, the two happened to meet each other in Shen Garden and Lu You composed the famous poem, "Hairpin Love" to express his sadness after the separation. When Tang Wan found the poem, she followed up with another melancholy poem and soon died in sorrow.

In 1963, Shen Garden was identified as historical and cultural site under protection in Zhejiang Province. Lu You composed lots of poems during his life, but seldom composed so many in the same place. Because of these moving stories and poems, people take Shen Garden as a place to monumentalize the poet as well as the bailment of their clinging love.