Portland: A garden oasis of Chinese tradition

PORTLAND — Bats are everywhere in this garden, if you take the time to find them.

They hover with stone wings unfurled over arching gateways and peer out from terra-cotta tiles, carved wings tucked under like so many tiny curlicues. They lie disguised in the delicate latticework of a whitewashed window, and masquerade as spade-shaped picture hooks, with bronzed bodies and pointed heads.

The bats — a symbol of good fortune in traditional Chinese culture — are one of many hidden treasures that greet visitors to Portland's Classical Chinese Garden, an oasis of ancient tradition transplanted into the bustle of a modern city.

"Every single time I come here I find something new. There's that sense of discovery," says Maria Duryea, a garden tour guide. "This garden shares its secrets, but it's not vulgar about it. It requires that you develop a certain sense of intimacy."

The Garden of the Awakening Orchids — or "Lan Su Yuan" in Chinese — has been a story of sharing from the start.

It was built in Portland's tiny Chinatown two years ago to commemorate a 15-year-old sister city relationship with Suzhou, a city of 6 million along China's central coast known for its beautiful gardens built by retired civil servants as early as 900 A.D.

Portland's garden stands on a city block that once held a parking lot. It is surrounded on all sides by the hum of the city, with buses and light-rail trains rumbling past, but inside the only sound is the bubbling of water.

From within its walls, visitors can make out the tops of the city's tallest buildings, so-called "borrowed views" designed to highlight the contrast between city and tranquil garden.

Traditional Suzhou gardens strive to re-create nature in the smallest of spaces — often a courtyard attached to the family's living quarters — by blending water, plants and rocks with the manmade beauty of poetry, bridges and pavilions.

A maze of hidden courtyards, secret turnoffs and twisting mosaic pathways enlarge the space, while open-air windows between walls leak glimpses of what lies beyond.

The garden, which opened in September 2000, is the largest and most complete Suzhou garden in North America, said Jin Chen, the garden's coordinator and Suzhou design expert.

In its first year, the garden attracted 258,000 visitors — nearly three times its designers' expectations. From the smallest plant to ceiling-high carvings of flowering plum and bamboo, nothing in the garden is without meaning. Even the garden's name, "Lan Su Yuan," has the double meaning of Portland-Suzhou Garden and Garden of the Awakening Orchids.

The garden begins its riddles even before visitors pass through the thick double doors into the first narrow courtyard.

A large white rock stands to the left of the entrance, its fragile surface eaten away by carefully orchestrated erosion in the waters of Lake Tai near Suzhou. Pocked with holes and creases, it looks more like a cloud than limestone. It is labeled "Crescent Cloud" in Chinese — just in case visitors missed the visual suggestion.

Passing the door, the garden unfolds itself slowly, opening from a narrow courtyard hemmed with a wall and towering trees to a jade-colored lake spanned by arching bridges and overhung with sweeping pavilions. In summer, the lake is dotted with lotus flowers, symbols of scholarly learning, and the bamboo — a sign of resilience and flexibility — casts shadows against the white walls.

Deep inside the maze of courtyards, another Lake Tai rock labeled "Entering the Clouds" reminds visitors of its whimsical counterpart at the entrance.

Yet, for all its success, Portland's $12 million Suzhou garden could have withered at any step along the way.

Garden designers shipped 500 tons of rock from China — from the massive Lake Tai limestone pieces to quarter-sized paving stones — and wrestled with how to make traditional Suzhou-style architecture comply with modern-day American building codes. They scoured regional nurseries and local neighborhoods for the 500 plant species now in the garden — all of which are native to China.

About 40 American construction workers labored alongside 70 artisans from Suzhou, communicating in sign language and puzzling over blueprints labeled in Chinese characters. The Americans stood amazed as pavers worked from what they considered a "new" construction manual — one updated in 1617.

"It was quite a different time scale entirely," says John Williams, project manager for the garden and senior project manager for Schommer & Sons. "They've been building those types of urban gardens in Suzhou for easily five times as long as our entire country has existed."

Williams says crews eventually inserted 4-inch steel beams in the wooden pillars to satisfy seismic requirements and used 900 gallons of silicon to secure the triangular tiles that cover the roof.

The garden is developing educational packets for teachers and specialty tours for groups with a particular focus, from medicinal plants to edible plants to classical history.

But for many, the Garden of the Awakening Orchids remains simply a place of discovery, a quiet retreat that reveals something more with every visit.

"The beauty I find in any single spot in the garden is the feeling I get from the garden as a whole," says Duryea, the guide. "In any corner, in any plant, in any paving stone, in any shadow — it's like the whole garden is revealed in that one spot."

IF YOU GO

Getting there: The Garden of the Awakening Orchids is on the corner of Northwest Third and Everett in Portland's Chinatown. Take Interstate 405 to the Everett Street exit and head east. The garden can also be reached via MAX, Portland's light-rail system, or by buses 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 33, 40 and 77.

Hours: The garden is open 10 a.m-5 p.m. Nov. 1 to March 31 and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. April 1 to Oct. 31. It's open until 8:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month.

Admission: Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Children under 5 are admitted free.

Tours: Public tours are offered daily at noon and 1 p.m. Private tours can be arranged based on guide availability by calling 503-228-8131. Groups of 15 or more should call two weeks in advance to schedule a visit. Private tours for large groups are available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, see www.portlandchinesegarden.org.

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