蒙特利尔植物园 -- 中国园 - I Love Montreal

The Chinese Garden is constructed along the traditional lines for a Ming Dynasty Chinese garden. Covering 2.5 hectares, it has many winding paths, an artificial mountain, and a building in the Chinese style housing a collection of bonsai and penjing that have been donated. The garden is populated with Chinese plants. The garden was constructed from 1990-1991 by 50 artisans from the Shanghai Institute of Landscape Design and Architecture, directed by Le Weizhong. The project required 120 containers of material imported from Shanghai, including 500 tonnes of stone from Lake Tai in Jiangsu province.[7]

This garden is unique. Rustic and asymmetrical at first glance, it was nonetheless created according to rigorous esthetic principles. It is both a place of contrast and harmony. The spatial organization and pavilions' architecture, the selection of plants and minerals, the water and the contrast of yin and yang are all expressions of the secular principles of the Chinese art of landscape design.

Chinese gardens play havoc with perspectives and Western conventions. Their components are laden with great metaphorical meaning. A designer reproduces nature not by imitating it, but rather by interpreting it, by creating a three-dimensional portrait. Shapes and masses are used to achieve contrast and arouse emotion.

The concept of the garden was the work of Le Weizhong, renowned architect and master landscaper and the director, at the time of construction during 1990-1991, of the Shanghai Institute of Landscape Design and Architecture.

The harmony of a Chinese garden is achieved by four major elements: plants, water, stones, and architecture.

The Chinese garden is the fruit of bonds forged between the Parks Department of the City of Shanghai and the Jardin botanique de Montréal. The thousands of pieces of material needed to build the garden were shipped from Shanghai to Montréal in some 120 containers. It took 50 Chinese craftsmen to assemble them all in 1990.