Chinese Garden Zurich SWITZERLAND 中國園林 瑞士 スイス

Zürich Garden SWITZERLAND
The Chinese Garden Zurich is located between Bellerivestrasse and Blatterwiese near Zürichhorn on the right bank of the lake, in the middle of the beautiful Zurich lake promenade. The Chinese Garden is a gift from the Chinese twin city Kunming to the people of Zurich. It was opened in 1994 and is now run by Grün Stadt Zürich. It belongs to the group of temple gardens and is considered one of the highest ranking gardens outside of China.

The garden is located on a rectangular site surrounded by a low wall. The central element is a pond with a small island in the middle. There are several buildings next to it:

On the south bank of the pond is the water palace with a lake terrace. Inside there are some Chinese period furniture and two monumental paintings.

Open gallery corridors lead in both directions. The beams are decorated with over 500 different landscape paintings and still lifes. The carved semi-arches above the crossbeams are a special feature of the Yunnan province with its capital Kunming. The northern gallery ends at a square pavilion.
On the west bank of the pond, opposite the main entrance, an artificial mountain massif rises up, which serves the function of a spirit wall.
There is a small round pavilion on the island. It is accessed from the west by a zigzag bridge, and from the east by a round-arch bridge. It is intended to be reminiscent of the Daoist island of the immortals.
In the northeast of the garden there is a hexagonal pavilion with phoenix motifs.
In addition, a large number of plants, bushes, rocks, stones, waterfalls, characters and the like are spread out throughout the park. Their arrangement is not random, but reflects the diverse references to Chinese symbolism in particular. Particular attention is paid to the main themes of Chinese culture, the so-called three friends in winter: bamboo, pine and winter cherry.
The location of the Chinese garden was chosen according to Chinese geomancy, the recognition of good places in space and landscape.

All pictures, sounds, music by: © shiso2012 思想会社 Shiso Productions