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
On the third Saturdays of the summer months May through August in 2019 we will again be offering public guided tours of the Chinese Garden lasting about an hour, during which our guides will explain the symbolism of the garden and its elements within the framework of Chinese philosophy. The guided tours start at 3 pm on the plaza in front of the entrance to the Chinese Garden and they are free.
The last guided tour this year will be given on August 17. After that there will be a break until next spring.
Important Notice about our Contact Address
In the future please use our recently changed contact address given in the right-hand column at the Botanical Garden of the RUB. We wish to thank the Society of Friends of the Ruhr University for their assistance over many years in the past.
Flyer
Our flyer about the Chinese Garden and the Society (unfortunately only available in German) was last updated in 2014. You can download it below and either read it on the screen or 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.
To comply with the European General Data Protection Regulation, the membership application contained in the flyer can no longer be accepted. If you would like to become a member (which would please us very much), please download the current version, in German, via the link in the right-hand column.
