| One such man who passed the Imperial Examinations to achieve a high post in the Ming Dynasty was Pan En whose family lived in Shanghai. The family accumulated great wealth and were able to shower the son of the house with everything necessary to become a scholar. Pan Yunduan also passed the Imperial Exams and was promoted frequently. It was the practice throughout the dynastic era to move ministers from their home territories and to rotate their appointments from time to time. Eventually, Pan Yunduan was appointed governor of Sichuan province in the south-west of China.
The characters shown on the gate are written in Traditional characters and they are written from right to left. They are 豫园 written left to right in Simplified Chinese. Yu 豫 means peaceful, happy, contentment and Yuan 园 means garden.
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