Lan Su Chinese Garden


Lan Su Chinese Garden, formerly the Portland Classical Chinese Garden and titled the Garden of Awakening Orchids, is a walled Chinese garden enclosing a full city block, roughly in the Chinatown area of the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. The garden is influenced by many of the famous classical gardens in Suzhou.

History

In the early 1980s an effort was started to build a Chinese garden in Portland, and in 1988 Suzhou and Portland became sister cities. Portland mayor Vera Katz continued those efforts in the 1990s and assisted the non-profit group that operates the garden in finding a site for the project. The garden was designed by Kuang Zhen and built by 65 artisans from Suzhou on land donated by NW Natural on a 99-year lease; groundbreaking occurred in July 1999, and construction was completed 14 months later at a cost of about $12.8 million. Five hundred tons of rock, including Chinese scholar's rocks from Lake Tai, were brought from China. The garden's grand opening was on September 14, 2000. The construction of the central lake has created problems at times, such as leakage and one case of three visitors falling into it.

Name Origin

Originally named Portland’s Classical Chinese Garden, it was renamed Lan Su Chinese Garden in January 2010 in celebration of the garden’s tenth anniversary. The name derives from the combination of the characters Lan, from the Chinese translation of Portland, and Su, from Suzhou, and is a representation of both cities being present in the garden. The character for Lan also means orchid, and the character for Su also means to awaken, so one can also translate the name as Garden of Awakening Orchids.

Current Events

In 2024 Portland city officials erected a security fence around the Lan Su Chinese Garden to stop repeated vandalism and hate crimes. Incidents included an axe being thrown through one of the tea house windows, the smearing of feces on a door, people engaging in drug use in view of the gardens, racist pamphlets, and their welcome sign being struck with a bottle full of red paint which have caused some employees to quit. These as well as the COVID-19 pandemic have also affected tourism with the garden losing about 50,000 visitors per year from the time the pandemic hit. As stated by Elizabeth Nye, who is the current Garden Director, there has been around a 10% decline in visitors from 2023 to 2024.

Features

Plants

About 90% of the plants featured in the garden are indigenous to China. However, no plants were brought from China due to import bans. Instead, many plants were found in gardens and nurseries in Oregon, having grown from plants brought over before the import ban. Some plants in the garden are as old as 100 years. In total there are more than 400 species of trees, orchids, water plants, perennials, bamboos, and unusual shrubs located throughout the garden. Some of the plants include:
The dominant feature is the artificial Lake Zither at the center of the garden. Water covers 8,000 square feet of the garden's total area, creating a visual impact of the water seeming to be much more widespread throughout the space. The inclusion of Lake Zither is a technique used in Chinese gardens to avoid straight lines. "The simplest law of geometry is that the straight line between two points is the shortest. Thus, twisting the lines of corridors, paths, waterways, and even the boundaries of buildings makes a space feel larger." Reflection off a body of water such as Lake Zither also helps enhance and broaden the area visually.

Garden structure

Lan Su features a number of structures common to Chinese gardens, including covered walkways, bridges, and thresholds. Examples of such structures in Lan Su Chinese Garden are:
  • Celestial Hall of Permeating Fragrance ;
  • Flowers Bathing in Spring Rain
  • Painted Boat in Misty Rain
  • Moon Locking Pavilion
  • Tower of Cosmic Reflection
  • Crabapple Blossom Gate