The Humble Administrator's Garden is divided into three parts: the eastern, middle and the western parts. The house lies in the south of the garden.

The middle part is the cream of the garden with marvellous mountains, clear water, exquisite buildings and exuberant trees and flower reminiscent of the scenery in the south of the Lower Yangtze. The picturesque scene of the pagoda mirrored in water is an example of the garden technique called "borrowed view from afar".

The buildings in the western part of the garden are properly arranged by the lake. To the south of the lake is a big mandarin duck's hall with two halves. The northern half is named "the Hall of 36 pairs of mandarin ducks" and the southern half "the hall of 18 camellias ". Going up and down and in a zigzag, a unique veranda over the water is a structure built along the wall to the east of the lake. The Good-For-Both-Families Pavilion on the top of the hill overlooks the middle and western parts, another example of the garden technique called " borrowed view from near".

Lying to the south of the garden is the house, which is the typical residence in Suzhou. On a north-south axis there are four successive buildings, namely the Sedan-Chair Hall, the Reception Hall and two two-storeyed buildings. To the east of the axis are the Mandarin Ducks' Hall with flower-basket decoration, the Flower Hall and the Four -Sided Viewing Hall.

The Humble administrator's Garden boasts altogether 48 different buildings, 101 parallel couplets and door plate aux, 40 stelae, 21 precious old trees, namely Wistaria, Sabina chincherinchee, pterocaulous stenophyllous, etc. falling into 13 different catalogues, and over 700 bonsai (potted landscape) kept in the Bonsai Garden in the western part of the garden, representing the Suzhou style bonsai, one of the four leading bonsai styles in china.