I recommend an absolutely off-the-beaten-path but super stunning place

I'm Zhuganmian, a travel blogger who doesn't like to follow the crowd.
I prefer niche, lesser-known destinations that have a cultural vibe and retain a sense of historical time.
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This place I stumbled upon on my way to a business trip in Nanjing. There are hardly any detailed guides online. After visiting, my overall feeling can be summed up in four words: "hard to describe."
It's not a negative comment, just literally,
I really find it difficult to describe this place in one sentence.
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Zhou Garden,
At first, when I saw the name, my initial thought was, isn't this just a private residence?
But no, not at all!
How to put it—
It’s like a museum, like ancient architecture, like an exhibition garden, like a temple, even like a haunted house. It really resembles everything except a paid tourist spot.
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This place charges an entrance fee, and the ticket isn’t cheap.
So I spent an entire afternoon there and only met four or five people in the whole garden.
I remembered a friend once said:
Only money can separate crowds; free attractions always have way more people than paid ones.
From this perspective, I think the ticket price is totally worth it. I’ve never liked crowded places.
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So what exactly is there in this place?
There’s a human-faced drum made from the skin of an 18-year-old girl,
a root carving hall emitting an old, musty smell when you push open the heavy wooden door,
thousands of Buddha statues, hundreds of ancient beds,
all kinds of rare treasures, bizarre buildings, and sculptures.
Although it’s called Zhou Garden, it doesn’t look like a garden at all.
Everywhere you look, there’s a sense of complexity, extravagantly exaggerated,
like things are piled up beyond capacity.
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When it comes to aesthetics, it’s always subjective.
Some people might come in and say, “What a messy, chaotic place,”
but to me, there’s a strange fondness for it.
There’s a popular term now: “the beauty of complexity,”
which means those things that look inexplicably messy, chaotic, hard to describe, yet strangely attractive, all mixed together.
Weird~ but~ beautiful.
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One more thing, this place is far from downtown Nanjing, with no public transportation. Unless you drive yourself or happen to pass by, you better not come.
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