So while in Vancouver and had a long layover after cruising. The family decided to do a day walking tour of downtown Vancouver. We did visit the Science World, Chinatown, and Gastown in Vancouver. But, what we did differently was visit little known garden in the center of Chinatown.
The garden was built in 1985–1986. The outer park was designed by architects Joe Wai and Donald Vaughan, while the inner garden was conceived by Wang Zu-Xin as the chief architect, with the help of experts from the Landscape Architecture Company of Suzhou, China. Funding for the project came from the Chinese and Canadian governments, the local Chinese community, and other public and private sector sources, and it opened on April 24, 1986, in time for Expo 86.
The gardens does have a nominal fee to enter but well worth the time if you have never visited a Chinese garden before. Also, if you are a penjing, suiseki, or bonsai person its a nice place to refocus your outside of your own environment.
Japanese Cypress - Chamaecypraris obtuse
Style: Informal Upright, Lingnan School
Age: 30+ years
Orange Jasmine - Hurraya Painculata
Style: Twin Trunk, Lingnan School
Age: 80+ year
Ginkgo or Maidenhair Tree - Ginkgo biloba
Style: Informal Upright, Lingnan School
Age: 25+ years
Chinese Banyan Tree - Ficus Retusa
Style: Rock Clinging, Lingnan School
Age: 30+ years
Orange Jasmine - Hurraya Painculata
Style: Branch Dropping, Lingnan School
Age: 120+ year
Buddhist Pine - Podocarpus macrophyllus
Style: Slanting Trunk, Lingnan School
Age: 130+ years
Orange Jasmine - Hurraya Painculata
Style: Twin Trunk, Lingnan School
Age: 130+ year
Buddhist Pine - Podocarpus macrophyllus
Style: Slanting Trunk, Lingnan School
Age: 130+ years
Rock Penjing
The Chinese word Penjing means an artistically trained plant or scenery in a container, usually ceramic, and which forms an integral part of the design.
There are three types of Penjing recoginzed in China.....shumi penjing (tree penjing), shanshui penjing (landscape or rock penjing) and shuihan penjing (water and land penjing). The latter is an combination of the first two.
The shanshui penjing you see before you was imported from the Shanghai Botanical Garden some years ago. Three kinds of rock are represented: stalagmite, fossil sandstone and Hexacoral.
Gongshi - Chinese Scholar Rocks
Gongshi is a Chinese term for rare rocks that display an aesthetic form and which are exhibited indoors as objects of appreciation and contemplation. In Japan they are called suiseki, while in Korea they are referred to as "longevity rocks." in the West, they are called "viewing stones," "spirit rocks," or, most often, "scholar rocks."
Chinese Banyan Tree - Ficus Retusa
Style: Rock Clinging, Lingnan School
Age: 130+ years
Orange Jasmine - Hurraya Painculata
Style: Twin Trunk, Lingnan School
Age: 130+ year
