Gardens began to thrive in Shanghai between the middle of Ming dynasty and early period of Qing dynasty. Luxiang Garden, also called Dew Fragrance Garden was established during this period, was built in Ming Dynasty Jiading Period (1522-1566) actually. The Luxiang Garden, Yuyuan Garden and Rishe Garden were often referred to as “The three gardens in Ming dynasty of Shanghai”. 

Gu Mingru who was once the procurator of Ming government, after resignation, he came to Shanghai and built a “Ten Thousand Bamboo Villa” at the northern area of city. His younger brother Gu Mingshi opened up vacant fields at west and east of the villa as well as dug a pond. There was a stone in the pond with three words of “Luxiang Pond”; it was said that these words were written by the famous calligrapher Zhao Mengfu, hence this villa was name after “Luxiang Garden”. 

It took the Gu family ten years and much money to construct the “Luxiang Garden”. The garden which covered about 40mu ((7 mu=1 acre), contained many attractive spots: except for Luxiang pond, there were Luxiang pavilion, Qinglian pond, duguan pavilion, Jicui mound and so on. During the process of construction, Gu Mingshi introduced a kind of superior species of peach tree, the juicy peach made in Luxiang Garden became the famous product at that time in Shanghai. 

The Luxiang Garden was famous for the attractions there but also Gu Embroidery. Gu Embroidery was unique that so different from Suzhou, Guangzhou, Hunan and Sichuan embroideries, it specialized in painting and calligraphy. The premier inventor of Gu Embroidery was a concubine of Gu Mingshi's first son, Gu Huihai. Then Han Ximeng, the wife of the second grandson of Gu Mingshi improved the skills and created a new technique: she let the traditional needle skills of Song Embroidery merge into the painting skills of traditional Chinese painting, and used the needle as the brush and took the thread as the pigment to paint a fabulous pictures. Some of her masterpieces were even kept in the Forbidden City. And she was reputed as “Needle Saint”. 

Due to continuous reform and innovation, Gu Embroidery enjoys reputation throughout the world. Nowadays, Gu Embroidery has become a speciality goods in Shanghai.