A special treasure within the Botanical Garden is the Chinese Garden Qian Yuan, a classical southern Chinese scholar's garden donated to the Ruhr University in 1990 by our partner university, the Tongji University of Shanghai.
When this fragile construction turned out to have suffered severe damage from our harsh climate within a few years, the Chinese Garden Society was founded in 2000 to prevent the imminent razing of the building and to collect donations for its renovation. After the Garden was reopened in October 2001 the Society remained in existence and now pursues two important goals:
- to keep an eye open for new structural damage and to organize and assist in financing necessary repairs and maintenance work in coordination and cooperation with the Botanical Garden;
- to acquaint the public with the Chinese Garden and its affairs by means of guided tours and other cultural events.
Guided Tours in 2013
This summer we will again be offering public tours through the Chinese Garden, explaining the symbolic significance of the garden within the framework of Chinese philosophy. The guided tours will take place at 3 p.m. on the third Saturday of the months May through August and take about an hour. Two guides will be present each time to keep the groups at a manageable size. The tours meet right at the entrance of the Chinese Garden (within the Botanical Garden) and it is not necessary to register or book.
The first tour on 18 May will be led by Eberhard Koch and Gordon Wassermann. Later dates will be on June 15 (Ursula Closset, Eberhard Koch), on July 20 (Ursula Closset, Gordon Wassermann) and on August 17 (Gisela and Klaus Fröhlich).
Photo book
For years our secretary Eberhard Koch has been recording the varying moods of the Chinese Garden at different seasons with photographs and recently a new photo volume was issued with a selection of his fantastic pictures, complemented by a few short articles in German with English and Chinese translations. Among them are the classical Tale of the Peach Blossom Spring (the motto of our garden) and Mr Koch's own descriptions of how the garden moved him to create these photographs.
Not merely a reprint of the sold-out photo book published in 2004, this volume with minor exceptions has entirely new content and the quality is vastly improved. The book, published under ISBN 978-3-920612-15-7 by the Bochum publishing house Schürmann + Klagges, is available in bookshops and from the Unishop.
Chinese stories in the Chinese Garden
On the evening of June 23, 2012, we once again were allowed to experience the magic of the Chinese Garden outside the usual opening hours. The prinz regent theatre enhanced the quiet atmosphere of dusk with a reading of Chinese love stories accompanied by the music of the Chinese zither guzheng. It was a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the garden in tender reveries.
By clicking on the photo, you can open a picture gallery of this evening, documented by our photographer Eberhard Koch.
Flyer
Below you can download our updated flyer about the Chinese Garden and the Society (unfortunately it is only available in German). You can read it on the screen or you can print it out double-sided on a DIN A4 sheet and fold it into thirds parallel to the shorter side to obtain the original format.
