Chinese Garden

[polkadotspeedo]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone here know of a nice Chinese-style garden to visit in the UK, or in Europe? Google seems rather poor using these keywords "Chinese garden UK".

I'm just interested to visit a few for my own personal study interest. I've been to those in Suzhou and Shanghai, but didn't have the time to enjoy them, so maybe there are some in the UK or Europe?

Are there any special interest group dedicated to Chinese garden and gardening techniques in the UK?

[randall_flagg]

There is a beautiful Chinese garden in Berlin, Germany.

[Chinapage]

For more details of Chinese gardens around the world, go to

http://www.chinapage.com/general/garden/garden.html

[polkadotspeedo]

Thank you for the link. Very interesting information.

It is however rather interesting to see the lack of presence of Chinese gardens in Europe. I'm surprised that the UK, being such a garden-orientated society, fail to give more weight in the appreciation of Chinese garden. There are however, plenty of mock-Japanese garden everywhere in the UK. One wonders why Japanese aesthetic is almost always admired in the UK, while Chinese perspective of beauty is often portrayed as grotesque.

The reputation of China, not only in its gardens, should be worked on.

[FengLiang]

Japanese gardens are also influenced by Chinese aesthetic values. It is called 'Court-Yard' in Japanese culture rather than 'Garden'. For 'Chinese Garden', it usually refers to the gardens of Ming and Qing dynasties (Suzhou is the symbol of this style). And court-yard is rather more ancient aesthetic Chinese (Song dynasty style, like gardens and court-yards in Hangzhou)

[Jialihai Jiejie]

Kyoto Garden in Holland Park, London.

The Pagoda, Japanese Gateway and Minka House in the Kew Gardens, London.

They are all Japanese-style but Japanese-style and Chinese-style are not so different.

We do have a lot of Chinese native flowers here though, like rhododendron, Chinese wisteria, peony, bamboo, etc. Some deer especially sika, muntjac and water deer; and pheasants can be commonly found here too.

So the 'garden' is actually quite big but you haven't really discovered it yet.

Jialihai Jiejie