Chinatown (Vancouver, BC)
When we entered China Town we were warned to stay on the main streets as the side streets can be dangerous. This is considered a bad area for unaware tourists because of gangs and aggressive street people.
Chinatown Street scenes:
We stopped in Chinatown to revisit the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park. We had seen it on our previous visit to Vancouver and it had made such a huge impression on us that we wanted to visit it again.
The garden (except for one small part) was constructed entirely of materials shipped from China. The construction was done by Chinese workers. It is an authentic reproduction of a 15th century Ming Dynasty scholar’s garden. There is a public side, which charges no admission and can be visited by anyone who wishes during daylight hours, and the other side is managed by a private trust and charges for tours. The admission fees are used to preserve and maintain the garden. It is a wonderfully beautiful and peaceful place.Tom in front of pavilion in public side of gardens:
Koi in “jade” water:
We arrived 45 minutes before the next tour, so we had time to sip a cup of Chinese tea in a beautifully decorated room with paintings and other exquisite pieces of art. I loved the “shanshui penjing”.
(Enlarge to read:)
Our guide was a young Chinese man who not only gave us a tour of the garden, he shared some Chinese history and culture with us, that helped us to understand what we were seeing in a new light. It was a better tour than we had experienced the last time—even though we had built up high expectations from memories.
We began our tour in China Maple Hall. The woodwork is magnificent. The ceiling beams are polished camphor wood to ward off mosquitoes by natural means—a six hundred year old practice that works as well as modern chemicals.
The water throughout the garden is a little cloudy and is a greenish color that represents jade. All the water features are lined with special clay that creates the color and intensifies the reflections (the branch in the lower left of the picture above is actually a reflection in the water).
We arrived 45 minutes before the next tour, so we had time to sip a cup of Chinese tea in a beautifully decorated room with paintings and other exquisite pieces of art. I loved the “shanshui penjing”.
(Enlarge to read:)
Our guide was a young Chinese man who not only gave us a tour of the garden, he shared some Chinese history and culture with us, that helped us to understand what we were seeing in a new light. It was a better tour than we had experienced the last time—even though we had built up high expectations from memories.
We began our tour in China Maple Hall. The woodwork is magnificent. The ceiling beams are polished camphor wood to ward off mosquitoes by natural means—a six hundred year old practice that works as well as modern chemicals.
Tom standing outside China Maple Hall: note the screen carved of gingko wood:
Ting: a pagoda high on weathered rocks, representing humans in their natural setting:
Looking across the garden to the double corridor, on the right side:
The double corridor is an outside hallway divided by a wall, with decorative wood-screened windows (each carved in a unique pattern), so that the ladies could always walk in the shade, keeping their complexions a desirable white. Tanned skin was considered of low station.
Jade Water Pavilion:
This pavilion contains two wooden screens. The round one, the shape of perfection, represents heaven. The square one represents earth. This provides balance.
In this picture you are looking through the square screened gate in the front toward half of the round one in the back of the room.
Everything in the classical Chinese garden is designed to provide balance—the Daoist yin and yang. The feminine flowing water side of the garden is balanced by the hard, rocky masculine side. Light and dark balance each other, as do representations of heaven and earth, as in the screens mentioned above.
The scholar’s courtyard was designed with masculine, dark elements to balance the feminine light side.
Pavement in scholar’s courtyard with “turtle” stepping stone—which added longevity when stepped upon:
Ting: a pagoda high on weathered rocks, representing humans in their natural setting:
Looking across the garden to the double corridor, on the right side:
The double corridor is an outside hallway divided by a wall, with decorative wood-screened windows (each carved in a unique pattern), so that the ladies could always walk in the shade, keeping their complexions a desirable white. Tanned skin was considered of low station.Jade Water Pavilion:
This pavilion contains two wooden screens. The round one, the shape of perfection, represents heaven. The square one represents earth. This provides balance.In this picture you are looking through the square screened gate in the front toward half of the round one in the back of the room.
Everything in the classical Chinese garden is designed to provide balance—the Daoist yin and yang. The feminine flowing water side of the garden is balanced by the hard, rocky masculine side. Light and dark balance each other, as do representations of heaven and earth, as in the screens mentioned above.
The scholar’s courtyard was designed with masculine, dark elements to balance the feminine light side.
Pavement in scholar’s courtyard with “turtle” stepping stone—which added longevity when stepped upon:
The scholar’s study, where the master, most likely a scholar/bureaucrat would do his work for whatever office he held (i.e. mayor):
Hall of a One Hundred Rivers: the only part of the gardens constructed by Canadian workers with some Canadian materials used as well. Our guide told us that this added Western balance to the Eastern influence of the rest of the garden.
Hall of a One Hundred Rivers: the only part of the gardens constructed by Canadian workers with some Canadian materials used as well. Our guide told us that this added Western balance to the Eastern influence of the rest of the garden.
Examples of bonsai, created so that the emperor could safely walk in a miniature version of his kingdom, avoiding the ever present threat of assassination in the outside world:
View across garden:
View across garden:
Pagoda through wooden screen:
A single blossom:
We spent a long time in the garden. It is such an unbelievable place. What a gift to the people of Vancouver and visitors to the city!
There was also a wonderful gift shop with all Chinese merchandise. We had a wonderful time there as well. Tom found many of the same articles he had found in Beijing and Taipei.
Last evening from our balcony, we saw a large cruise ship heading out of the Vancouver harbor. We knew that many of the people we spent part of the day with were sailing at sunset, headed to Alaska and more adventures. It was neat watching the ship head out to sea with all the lights glowing, and wishing the passengers well.
A single blossom:
We spent a long time in the garden. It is such an unbelievable place. What a gift to the people of Vancouver and visitors to the city!There was also a wonderful gift shop with all Chinese merchandise. We had a wonderful time there as well. Tom found many of the same articles he had found in Beijing and Taipei.
Last evening from our balcony, we saw a large cruise ship heading out of the Vancouver harbor. We knew that many of the people we spent part of the day with were sailing at sunset, headed to Alaska and more adventures. It was neat watching the ship head out to sea with all the lights glowing, and wishing the passengers well.
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