The Chinese Garden and Its Pavilions

Chinese Garden

Dream Lake Garden

The Dream Lake Garden is a classic Chinese garden designed in the tradition of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) by architect Le Weizhong, Director of the Shanghai Institute of Landscape Design and Architecture. The 6-acre garden is built in the Jianghan style, meaning water and mountains, typical of the southern Yangtze River region. All the elements of the garden were built in Shanghai workshops, then dismantled and shipped by sea to Montreal, where they were reassembled on the Botanical Garden site in 1990 by a team of expert craftsmen from Shanghai.

The Floralies internationals held in Montreal in 1980 led to the forging of close bonds between Montreal and Shanghai. This garden, dedicated to dreams and friendship, is the fruit of co-operation between the two cities, which are now officially twinned.

Like a bridge spanning the two continents, the garden will bring the people in both lands closer together and introduce visitors to a millennia-old civilization that is intimately linked to the world of plants.

Photo by Elena

Guardians of the Forest: In this forest of lanterns, four figures illustrate two of Xishuangbanna’s peoples with a profund respect for nature – the Dai and the Hani. The Dai have been exploiting the forest in an eco-friendly manner for some 2,000 years and the Hani as the nature spirits for permission before using  its resources. These two ethnic groups have long understood that their own survival depends on the balance of nature.

The Chinese Garden Pavilions

Rooftops, pointing to the sky, are visible here and there through the trees, beyond the walls.

Symbolizing man’s small but essential place in the universe, their architectural concept blends naturally with the garden as a whole.

The seven classical style pavilions in the Dream Lake Garden represent the architectural diversity of gardens from the Ming dynasty. Some are enclosed, others are open-sided. Designed and built according to age-old methods, their structure combines beams and columns with variable spacing to produce the distinctive curves of traditional roofs. The pieces of wood all fit into each other, and no nails or other metal objects are used. The clay roof tiles were specially fixed to make them resistant to the Montreal climate.

The phoenixes and dragons on the decorative tiles are symbols of happiness and symbolize the yin and yang  forces.

A heaven of rest and contemplation, each pavilion has a name accompanied by a poem. Man and nature meet here in art, in an atmosphere of elegance and simplicity.

The entry to the garden and pavilions. Image: © Elena

Symbolizing man’s place in the universe, the architectural concept blends with the garden as a whole. Image: © Elena

Friendship Hall interior: It is a cultural centre dedicated to Chinese art and traditions. This pavilion was donates to Montreal by the City of Shanghai. Photo: © Elena