The College of Landscape Architecture in Nanjing Forestry University, with a history of a century, can be traced back to the Landscape Architecture Center of the National Central University and Jinling University. Prof. Chen Zhi, the founder of the college, was an outstanding landscape architect in China and also the founder of modern Chinese landscape architecture. In 1956, Nanjing Forestry University set up the major of Urban Residential Greening, which was one of the earliest Landscape Architecture major in China. Since then, gardening-related majors have waxed and waned, their fates tied to the nation's vicissitudes. Ever since the reform and opening-up, the Landscape Architecture has developed rapidly, and in 1980, Landscape Architecture of Nanjing Forestry University restored enrollment. The College of Landscape Architecture was formally established in 1999 and was separated in 2006. Since then, the College of Landscape Architecture in Nanjing Forestry University has become the first Landscape Architecture School in Southern China.

    The College of Landscape Architecture has 5 departments including  Department of Landscape Architecture Planning, Department of Landscape Architecture Design, Department of Landscape Architecture, Department of Urban and Rural Planning, and Department of Garden Plants. The college has a highly competitive faculty, with teachers holding degrees from famous foreign universities as well as Chinese "Double First-Class" universities, including Kyushu University, Aichi Institute of Technology, and Seoul National University, etc. Among full-time teachers, more than 60% have rich experience of overseas study or as visiting scholars, and about 90% are teachers with doctor’s degrees.

    The college aims at training innovative and comprehensive talents with "international vision, localized practice, and modern thinking". As a college with distinctive characteristics, it has set up three undergraduate majors of Landscape Gardening, Landscape Architecture, and Urban and Rural Planning. The Landscape Gardening is among the first batch of national featured major construction sites, the first batch of "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" national comprehensive reform pilot majors, and the first batch of national outstanding agricultural and forestry talents training program reform pilot majors in China. Besides, it is awarded as the Class-A brand major of Jiangsu province, key major and first-class major of Jiangsu province.

    The College of Landscape Architecture is authorized as the college to confer doctor's degree of "Landscape Architecture" and master's degree of "Urban and Rural Planning" in first-level discipline, and master's degree of "Landscape Architecture". The first center for post-doctoral studies for "Landscape Architecture" in China was set up here. The discipline is listed among the first batch of superior and key disciplines in Jiangsu province. Moreover, "Landscape Architecture" ranked the third in China (A-) during the fourth round of discipline assessment by the Ministry of Education.

    The College of Landscape Architecture has been awarded such titles as the first "National Garden Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center", the first "National Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching Center of Garden" in China, and the "Key Laboratory of Landscape Architecture of Jiangsu Province". Furthermore, it features the unique national outstanding teaching staff of “Landscape Architecture Planning and Design” in China and has won the second prize in the national teaching achievements contest for three times in a row.

    The College of Landscape Architecture focuses on scientific research and promotes teaching through research. It has four research institutes, including the National Blue and Green Space Planning Research Center, Jiangnan Garden History and Heritage Protection Research Center, National Park Research Center, and Flower Research Center, as well as Sino-U.S. Landscape Architecture Planning and Design and Protection Research Center.

    In recent years, the college has hosted a number of domestic and international academic conferences such as the Asian Garden Congress, the World Association of Science and Engineering, and the International Symposium for the 120^th Birthday Anniversary of Mr. Chen Zhi. It has good cooperative relationship and academic exchanges with world famous universities such as Harvard University, Georgia University, University of Sheffield, University of Western Australia. The College assigns outstanding undergraduate students to the United States, Europe, Australia and other countries every year for short-term or long-term study and exchanges. Meanwhile, a group of foreign students with different skin colors and races enjoy the opportunity to study here every year.

    In the past five years, the graduate employment rate has remained above 98%, and the advancement rate has been around 30%, of which about 10% go to Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Berkeley, Cornell University, University of Sheffield and other world famous universities for further education.

    “Fusing Chinese and foreign cultures, imitating natural landscape” and “ingeniously learning from the nature, conducting cultural inheritance and promoting innovation”, the College of Landscape Architecture that keeps moving forward has become the beautiful scenery of Nanjing Forestry University.