The koi fish seem to be dancing as they swim, the glow from the three colourful paper lanterns joyfully reflected in the still water of the pond at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Pat Carneys eyes glisten and her voice quivers with emotion when she sees them. I just love those koi, the retired senator says as she pauses at the end of our tour within the white walls.
Its the night of winter solstice and the garden is aglow with hundreds of lanterns. They come in all shapes the koi, a crane, a huge tea set, Chinese pagoda and round orbs each lit from within by a flickering candle. The darkest day of the year never looked so enchantingly beautiful.
Wait till you see the garden in the day, Carney says. If I just want to sigh, she lets out a deep breath that pulls her shoulders down as the air leaves her body and then searches for another way to describe how the garden makes her feel if I want to calm down, its serenity for me.
Earlier that night, she stood with Vancouvers deputy mayor Raymond Louie and the gardens president and vice-president, Li Yang and Peter Wong, to mark the end of the gardens 25th anniversary year. There were three new things to celebrate, however: National Geographic had just named the Chinatown garden as the best urban garden in its new book, Secret Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the Worlds Hidden Travel Gems; a documentary about the gardens history is just out; and Louie read a declaration stating that from this year forward, December 21 will be Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden Day.
If the evening made Carney a bit emotional, its easy to understand why. She was the MP for Vancouver Centre when an anonymous donor said hed give $1 million for the gardens creation if the money could be matched. (That donor turned out to be the late David Lam.)
I didnt know what a Chinese garden was, Carney says. When she asked people for money, she described it this way: Its mainly rocks and water and shadows.
She wanted to be able to tap into some of the money for Expo 86 but every time she went to one ministry shed be told that the garden fell under a different ministry. Finally, one day when the House of Commons was in session, she leaned down and tapped the shoulder of the man sitting in front of her. It was Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. She babbled away about the garden and told him that she needed a million dollars. He said, You got it.
The garden officially opened on April 24, 1986. At the time it was the only garden created in the style of a Ming Dynasty scholars residence outside of China. Today it is tended by the same man who started on opening day, James Yu.
Yes, a Chinese garden is all about rock and water and shadows, Carney says, but its how those beauties are revealed at different times of the day, and in different seasons, that give it a sense of serenity.
As you move around, the shapes and shadows change, she says, her own movements and words chosen much more carefully than when she was rocketing her way through Canadian politics, taking on some of the biggest issues of the day. Arthritis has made her economical in her movements but she wants to expend a bit more energy on raising the gardens public profile.
The garden, she says, is like the citys secret heart. Ive learned to read the complexities of the garden, she says. You see elements of the world around us. The rocks all tell a story. Some of these secret treasures shouldnt be secrets any more.
The next big celebration at the garden is the Chinese New Year Festival on January 29. Go to VancouverChineseGarden.com for details.
