Seattle Chinese Garden, Part One: The Structures
I recently discovered a really beautiful park pretty near my house: The Seattle Chinese Gardens. It is a lovely garden with structure's using traditional Chinese architecture. For a moment, it really is easy to feel like you are somewhere else entirely.
The Chinese garden was a very peaceful place to spend time. The pavilion seemed lonely but not spooky. It was empty but it is inviting people who come into it's embrace to dance or even to just stand and contemplate.
The koi pond did have a few smaller little fish but the water was so murky green they were hard to capture on film, which is too bad. I really like koi fish. They are so beautiful and fancy. There is a koi pond at a nursery in Ballard that is full of the friendliest fish in the world. They come to the surface like little puppies asking for pets. It's neat how animals of all species try to make connections with us humans. The fish in the Seattle Chinese Garden pond didn't seem to interested. They've probably been sneaked less fish treats.
This sculpture of a koi fish is really very pretty and large. But koi fish can get big in real life too. The jumbo koi fish can get 34 to 36 inches long!
Chinese garden's were originally created by Chinese Emperors, but other deep thinkers created smaller versions of the garden. Poets, scholars and even merchants and soldiers wanted a beautiful place to escape and contemplate. So while they couldn't create the lavish gardens of the emperors, they could create their own gardens that were similarly themed with miniature landscapes and collisions between the man made and that made by nature. There are many things that signify what is typical in a Chinese garden including ponds abundant with lazily swimming fish, beautiful rocks invoking images of craggy mountains, bent and lovely trees, blooming flowers, and man made halls and pavilions.
Many Chinese gardens are inspired by a legend of eight immortals. On an island, in the middle of the sea, eight immortals lived in the most beautiful place. The glowing green trees were abundant with not only fruit, but lavish and sparkling jewels that dangled from heavy branches. The inhabitants of the island lived in towering castles made of shimmering silver and gold. Pain was not existent. The chill of winter never crept into the comforting warmth of the islands atmosphere. Plates were always full of delicious food. Glasses always overflowed with sweet and wonderful wine.
In 221 BC, King Qin was inspired to create a replica of the legendary island in the middle of his lake to accompany the other lavish beautiful touches in his garden. After the kings death, his empire was destroyed along with his lovely garden. But he had started a trend within Chinese gardens and still many Chinese gardens have islands to represent the island of the eight immortals.