Chinese Garden, Chinese temple garden in Seefeld district, Zürich, Switzerland.
The Chinese Garden in Zürich occupies an exactly rectangular plot enclosed by a low wall, with a pond and small island at its centre. A water palace with a lake terrace stands on the south bank, an artificial mountain on the west, a round pavilion on the island and a hexagonal pavilion in the north-east. Open galleries link the buildings.
Kunming gave the garden to Zürich in thanks for technical and scientific help in building the city's drinking water supply and drainage. It was built from May to October 1993 by gardeners and craftsmen from both cities under Zürich's garden department, financed by Wasserversorgung Zürich for its 125th anniversary. Kunming's mayor and Zürich's mayor Josef Estermann inaugurated it in spring 1994; Thomas Wagner had pushed the partnership. Since 2010 Grün Stadt Zürich has maintained it.
The garden is laid out around the theme of the Three Friends of Winter: pine, bamboo and plum blossom, plants that endure the cold season together. Willows line the pond as a symbol of pure water, and four ginkgos stand between the open gallery and the northern wall. Local poplars were worked into the design, and the bamboo is planted to sound in the wind.
The garden is within walking distance of public transport and is accessible from March through October. Visitors should check opening times and know that the site's appearance varies depending on the season.
The galleries' carved half-arches over the crossbeams are a feature specific to Yunnan, the province whose capital is Kunming. More than 500 landscape paintings and still lifes decorate the beams, and the northern gallery ends at a square pavilion whose entrance shows two golden phoenixes.
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