Portland Classical Chinese Garden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lake Zither in Portland Classical Chinese Garden

Portland Classical Chinese Garden, titled the Garden of Awakening Orchids, is a walled garden enclosing a full city block, roughly 40000 square feet (1 acre, 4,000 m²) in the Chinatown area of the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, USA. The garden is influenced by many of the famous classical gardens in Suzhou.

The garden was built by 65 workers from Suzhou on land donated by NW Natural; groundbreaking occurred in July 1999, and construction was completed 14 months later at a cost of about $12.8 million. 500 tons of rock were brought from China and used in the garden. The garden's grand opening was on September 14, 2000.

Most of the plants featured in the garden are indigenous to China. However, no plants were brought from China due to import bans. Instead, many plants were found in gardens and nurseries in Oregon, having grown from plants brought over before the import ban. Some plants in the garden are as old as 100 years. There are over a hundred trees, orchids, water plants, perennials, bamboos, and unusual shrubs located throughout the garden.

It includes examples of a number of structures common to Chinese gardens, including covered walkways (lang), bridges (qiáo), and structures such as:

Celestial Hall of Permeating Fragrance (a xuan, or scholar's studio for practicing the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar);
Flowers Bathing in Spring Rain (a shuixie, or water-side pavilion);
Painted Boat in Misty Rain (a fáng, or boat-shaped pavilion):
Moon Locking Pavilion (a tíng, or stopping place); and
Tower of Cosmic Reflection (a lóu, or two-storied building).