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.
The Coronavirus Pandemic
The Botanical Garden and with it the Chinese Garden returned to their normal opening hours at the beginning of September, but the coronavirus restrictions are still in force. The gardens can be visited on Mondays through Sundays from 10am until 6 pm. Please also take note of the code of conduct for the Botanical Garden (available below in German and pictograms).
code of conduct
(7.6 MB)Because the corridors in the Chinese Garden are so narrow it is difficult to maintain social distancing. To relieve this problem a one-way system has been set up for visiting the Chinese Garden. Access is possible only via the usual, main entrance to the Chinese Garden. After you have passed through the first pavilion you have the choice of continuing by the right-hand path or turning left, and then you can leave the garden only via the rear entrance near the rustic landing (the "boathouse"). A complete circuit is not allowed; to see the entire garden you must pass through twice, once on the right, once on the left.
one-way system
(1.6 MB)Guided Tours
Because of the coronavirus pandemic we unfortunately had to cancel our usual program of guided tours through the Chinese Garden this year.
However, we hope that next year we will again be able to offer the full program of guided tours in the accustomed manner. As soon as we can say more, you will find an announcement on this spot.
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.
