Chinese Garden

“A peaceful place to rest/In the silence one finds the strength for new thought”, this is what is written in calligraphy on a table at the water pavilion of the Chinese Garden (Chinesischer Garten) in Bethmann Park (Bethmannpark). And this exceptional place does indeed radiate a special calm and an East Asian aesthetic. Surrounded by thick walls and shielded from the hectic pace of the city, the garden has been constructed according to the model of the Shiukou Gardens in Huizhou. The buildings are in the style of simple homes from the Anhui province. Over a period of only 5 months of construction, in 1989 a 4,000-square-metre “spring flower site” was created here with 22 landscape views, a marble bridge, various pavilions, a large pond and even a waterfall. The specialists and craftsmen who created this exotic garden world also came from China, as did most of the precious materials used in its construction.

The origin of Chinese garden culture can be found in Taoism. The requirement that wise hermits go to the cities to fulfil their obligations supposedly led to the idea of transferring landscapes to gardens. In this way, the harmony of the world with a balanced relationship of the “seven parts” (earth, heaven, water, stone, buildings, animals and plants) is to be illustrated. Hence the typical defining elements such as the honorary arch, the wooden “bridge of the half boat”, the “jasper green pond”, the “water pavilion of the purified heart” and the traditional zig-zag bridge can be found in Frankfurt’s Chinese Garden.