Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
On our 30th day in Canada, Grace, Jandy, Kyle and I visited the tranquil Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, the first full scale classical Chinese Garden (which strives to achieve harmony and a balance of opposites by employing the philosophical principles of Feng shui and Taoism) in all of Canada.
From Holdom Station, we took the Millennium Line SkyTrain to Commercial-Broadway Station then took the Expo Line train to the Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain Station. From here, it was just a short 600-m. walk, via Keefer Place, to the Garden. We entered the Garden through a whitewashed wall behind the Chinese Cultural Center and passed through a doorway marked Yi Yuan (“Garden of Ease or Lingering Garden.”
Both the garden and the park were named in honor of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), a Western-educated nationalist leader (considered the “father of modern China”) who, while traveling the world to raise awareness of, and funding for, the Chinese nationalist movement (as well as to hide from the Empress), stayed, for extended periods, in Vancouver on three occasions (1897, 1910 and 1911).
There are accounts of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania (412 Carrall St.) and also the Chinese Freemasons Building (5 West Pender St.) in Chinatown.
Bust of Dr. Sun Yat Sen
The significant presence of Chinese nationalists in British Columbia (in the early 1900’s, Chinese in Vancouver donated more money per capita than any other North American city) helped finance the Xinhai Revolution that overthrew the Ch’ing/Qing Dynasty in 1911. Subsequently, Sun Yat Sen became the first president of the Republic of China.
The site of both, where Vancouver’s Chinatown first began, at the edge of False Creek, was once home to Chinese association buildings including a sawmill, brothels, opera house, opium factory and, until 1920, the Great Northern Railway train station. In the late 1960’s, plans were underway for a freeway to go through Chinatown but these plans were thwarted and part of the reclaimed land was then designated for a Chinese Cultural Centre and an adjoining park and Chinese garden.
China Maple Hall
Anticipating the costs to continually maintain a Classical Chinese Garden, the area was divided into two spaces. In 1976, the planning and fundraising for the park and garden began with the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden located just west of the public Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park. The park and garden covers just over 2.5 acres, with the Classical Garden covering approximately 1/2 an acre.
China Maple Hall – Interior
The outer park was designed by Vancouver architect Joe Wai and landscape architect Donald “Don” Vaughan, working with the Suzhou team to ensure authenticity but still accommodate Vancouver’s building code and current technological requirements. The inner garden, conceived by Wang Zu-Xin as the chief architect, was built with the help of experts from the Landscape Architecture Company of Suzhou, China.
The larger free Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park (a public park built in a Chinese style, with mostly North American materials) administered by Vancouver Parks Board, was completed in 1983.
The smaller Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, requiring admission fees, was completed in 1986, expanded in 2004 and is managed by the non-profit, Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden Society. These two separate entities are linked by the artificial pond.
The mandate of this freely accessible public park and garden is to “maintain and enhance the bridge of understanding between Chinese and western cultures, promote Chinese culture generally and be an integral part of the local community.” Embodying the Taoist philosophy of yin and yang (where every element-light, texture, vegetation is balanced and symbolic), this home garden offers serenity, history and great chi.
Of the three types of Classical Chinese Gardens (the Imperial Garden, the Monastery Garden and the Scholar Garden), the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is a “scholars” (who often became the Ming Dynasty emperor’s senior administrators) garden, the first built outside of China.
Tai Hui rocks amidst foliage
The characteristically small scholars’ gardens, adjoining the scholar’s residence, were surrounded by high walls (to prevent distraction from the outside world and to provide a peaceful space for scholarly reflection on philosophy and truth) and have no single vantage point where one can obtain a total view of the garden.
Water lilies
This small intimate garden-home, a registered museum and one of Vancouver’s top tourist attractions, is ideal for people who don’t want to do a lot of walking and is a recommended place to visit year-round (especially if you take the guided tour). It features beautiful pavilions, covered walkways, a jade green pond with koi fish, and a collection of 150-year-old miniature trees.
The guided tour
Purposely designed as a series of unfolding scenic vistas (like displaying multiple landscape paintings), the garden has winding walkways and corridors that ensure the entire path cannot be seen. The zigzag paths have a dual purpose. First, they slow one’s steps so that the garden can be fully appreciated and, second, they ward away evil spirits.
Weeping willows
The project, a joint collaborative effort funded by the Chinese and Canadian governments, the local Chinese community and other public and private sector sources, was built, at a cost $5.3 million, in 13 months (March 1985-April 1986) by a team of 52 Suzhou artisans (e.g. masons, carpenters, painters, carvers, tilers) arranged by the Suzhou Garden Administration from China.
It was constructed using 14th century methods (no glue, screws or power tools were used). The materials, tools and techniques used to construct the garden were almost identical to those used in the Ming Dynasty.
Jade Water Pavilion
Modeled after private gardens in the city of Suzhou (because the winter climate in Vancouver is similar), Chiangsu province in China, 70% of the same plant varieties are found in the garden as in its Suzhou counterparts. The garden opened on April 24, 1986, in time for Expo 86. The Garden’s China Maple Hall was built to signify the friendship cooperation between Canadians and Chinese.
Moon Gate at Jade Water Pavilion
Much of the architectural components (carved woodwork; the limestone rocks; the courtyard pebbles; and the roof tiles fired in China’s Imperial Kilns) came from China. They were prepared in Suzhou packed into 965 wood crates and brought to Vancouver in 70 steel containers.
Wooden beams and columns at China Maple Hall
The wood all came from China – the Chinese fir for the structural components; camphor for the curved rafters (whose scent also helps repel insects); gingko wood for the screens and nan wood (a species used in China for over 2000 years) for the columns of the China Maple Hall and Scholar’s Study. The floor tiles are made of pebbles form riverbeds in China and broken Chinese porcelain.
Floor Tiles
In order to emphasize seasonal changes (especially the “awakening” in spring), the plants were chosen for their symbolism, their season, their blossom schedules, the mood they create and the space they define. In contrast to western gardens, plants do not have a dominant role and are used sparingly and are meant to complement the garden.
They are also selected to invoke the symbolic, historical, and literary meaning of each plant and to provide color through all the seasons. Winter-flowering plum depicts renewal and rebirth; the bamboo symbolizes resiliency and flexibility; the ginkgo represents China; the maple represents Canada; and the pine symbolizes steadfastness and longevity.
Chinese Banyan tree (Ficus Retusa)
The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden also has a collection of penjing (an art form dating back to the 8th Century AD and a precursor to Japanese bonsai and suiseki) plants (landscapes in small trays/bowls) that were donated by a Hong Kong benefactor in 1992. To ensure that there is a sense of relationship and balance among all the garden’s elements, all the plants are regularly and carefully pruned.
Orange Jasmine (Hurraya painculata)
The architecture of the beautiful pavilions, courtyards, covered walkways, terraces, corridors, bridges and viewing platforms is based on and evokes the Classical design of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Symbolic motifs of plants and animals are incorporated into the floors, tiles, windows and door pulls. The 45 intriguing leak windows each have a different lattice pattern from the other.
Leak Windows
Those along the corridors maintain privacy and allow light and air to come into the garden. The symbolic, circular Moon Gate represents heaven and perfection. It is important that the architecture, such as the Ting (Yun Wei Ting or “Cloudy and Colorful Pavilion”) and rocks and pebbles, are seen and not hidden by overgrown trees or bushes.
Leak Window
The key elements of a Chinese Classical Garden, used to reflect Confucian ideals as well as the Tao (Dao) principles of yin (having more ephemeral, feminine qualities) and yang (being more solid, permanent and masculine), are architecture, rocks, water, plants and calligraphy.
Craggy, weathered, water-worn and unique limestone rocks, symbolizing nature’s rugged landscape and force (yang), are found only at the bottom of Suzhou’s famous Lake Tai (Tai Hui) and imported to the site. Strategically placed and juxtaposed against delicate foliage, they are intended to represent “false mountains” (with multiple crevices for the good spirits to live in), concealing and revealing park elements. The Yun Wei Ting gazebo perches atop one such mountain.
Water, representing the ‘yin’ of nature and the flow of life, offers stillness, sound, a reflection of the sky, and helps to unify the other elements. A Classical Chinese Garden is centered on a pond. Large ponds are made purposely opaque, with a clay liner so that it can reflect the surrounding and create a sense of tranquility. The jade color symbolizes purity.
Both water and rocks are important integral elements. Trees, plants and the fish and turtles that live in the garden, all have symbolic connotations and purpose. Throughout the garden, bats (representing good fortune, they are in the design of the door handles and roof’s drip tiles), dragons and phoenixes are represented in objects.
Items are carefully placed to ensure a flow of positive energy (ch’i/qi) and to create harmony. The garden exemplifies the balance between opposites, with white walls topped with dark roof tiles; floor tiles, with smooth stones, contrasting with rough porcelain; and flexible bamboo located next to rigid rocks. The north side of the garden, exhibiting yin qualities, with rounded designs in the leak windows and floor tiles, contrasts with the south side of the garden which has yang qualities, with more straight-edged patterns.
Calligraphy is an integral part of a Chinese Garden and some of the top Chinese scholars in Canada contributed their works for the signs, couplets and poetry which add insight and mood. To add diversity, the Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden uses four different styles of script. What the words say and how they are written were carefully selected.
Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park plaque
One of the scrolls in the Main Hall states “An exquisite garden built in Vancouver to commemorate the accomplishments of the past ages” Even the sign at the main entrance way to the public park is significant as it is a carved version of calligraphy by Madam Sun Yat-Sen. For its pavilions, the Garden uses poetic names such as “Cloudy and Colorful Pavilion,” “Study of the Four Seasons” and “Hall of One Hundred Rivers.”
Wooden bridge over lily pond at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park
Over the years, the Garden, truly a place of urban Zen, has received several honors and designations. It was named one of Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s “Places That Matter,” and the “World’s Top City Garden” by National Geographic in 2011 and was voted “Canadian Garden of the Year” by the Canadian Garden Tourism Council in 2012.
Moon Gate at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park
The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden was used as the backdrop for many episodes of Season 4 of Falling Skies and also appears in Season 5 Episode 1 of Psych, titled “Romeo and Juliet and Juliet.” It was also the site of a calligraphy task during the second episode of The Amazing Race Canada 1.
Jandy, Kyle and Grace at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park
The wheelchair accessible and family friendly (entry includes a scavenger hunt for children) Garden, a unique venue for cultural programming and events, including concerts, festivals, exhibitions, author readings, receptions, and educational programs, offers free guided tours (which provide perspectives on Chinese culture, life during the Ming Dynasty, architecture and plants) and complimentary sips of traditional Chinese tea as well as one of a kind finds at the Eight Treasures Shop.
Pathway at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden: 578 Carrall cor. Keefer St., Chinatown, Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 5K2. Tel: 604-662-3207. Open Wednesdays – Sundays, 10 AM to 4 PM (last entry time at 3 PM). Admission: $16 (adults), $12 (students age 6-17 or over 17 with valid student I.D.), $13 (seniors) and $32 (family, 2 adults and up to 3 children under the age of 17).
How to Get There: Chinatown-Stadium Sky Train. From downtown, you can walk directly down Pender Street going East and you will find the Garden.