One day during our week’s visit to Vancouver, B.C., we took a long ramble through several of the city’s downtown neighborhoods. One of these, Chinatown, offers a calm and meditative oasis amidst the soaring residential towers surrounding it: the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. The separate, adjoining public park features a large reflective pond stocked with koi; meandering gravel paths coiling around bamboo thickets; graceful pine, maple and willow trees; ornamental shrubs and taihu rocks, oddly weathered limestone rocks in whose contorted forms one can picture all manner of creatures.

The classical garden, representing a Chinese scholar’s garden, is accessed through a separate, ticketed entrance. Opened in 1986, it was the first classical garden constructed outside of China, done so by a team of 53 experts from Suzhou. Most of the architectural components — carved woodwork, roof tiles, limestone rocks, courtyard pebbles and lattice windows — were brought from China, and the tools and techniques used mirrored those used during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), an era encompassing the height of Chinese philosophy, art and calligraphy.

The garden itself is actually a carefully balanced landscape of buildings and outdoor spaces creating a series of lovely vistas of stone (pebbles laid in intricate patterns in courtyards, tortured taihu rocks, rounded boulders around the pond),     water (reflective pools and tumbling falls) and plants (many beginning to glow with fall color). The buildings, from the enclosed Maple Hall (built without use of nails, screws or glue) to the open-sided Cloudy and Colourful Pavilion (the yang-element ting to the Maple Hall’s yin-element tang) exhibit extraordinary craftsmanship in every detail. Every scene offers serene, uncluttered views, but hidden in plain sight everywhere are gems of minute artistry: bat shapes (traditional good luck symbols) in door-pulls; roof drip tiles embossed with the “shou” character, for long life; delicate carvings of flowers.                     

A quick scan upon entering the garden led me to think its modest size would provide a pleasant but quick exploration. As I began to stroll its walkways, peered through its leak windows (leaking air, breeze, light and scenery) and explored tiny pockets offering miniature tableaux, I found myself in a timeless world of peace and beauty. I could have easily stretched my hour there to a much greater span, but my husband and the rest of the city called. Should you find yourself in lovely Vancouver and desire a respite from the urban scene, drop in here and leave the present behind.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor