The Portland Classical Chinese Garden

One might think that Zorah and I had had our fill of gardens, but we had not. Today we headed to my third goal, the Chinese garden, and Zorah happily and enthusiastically agreed that it would be great. Brian, however, had had enough of gardens before we even started. He likes the outdoors, but he's less about the flora and more about the water that gives it life.

When we got to the garden, I was somehow surprised to see that it was in Chinatown. Duh! I guess I assumed it would be in a similar setting to the Japanese Garden. Live and learn. Had we known its location prior to our visit, I think Brian would have come with us in hopes of eating some good Chinese food. Oh, well.

The Chinese Garden is in a comparatively small walled compound in the downtown Portland Chinatown area. White walls surround it, with windows cut into them, offering the pedestrians outside tantalizing peeks into the garden itself. Foliage escapes and beckons.

I suppose you miss all this if you park in front of the garden. We drove past it and parked around the corner and further down the road so we got to walk around the whole compound before being greeted by the stone lions by the front entrance. Are they really lions? They don't look like lions...

This garden was lovely as well, but it didn't have quite the same appeal as the Japanese Garden. I suppose that this one was more constrained both by space and by structure. One of the strange features here was this courtyard, which you weren't supposed to enter. It was made solely to be admired from this oddly shaped opening. Apparently all the tiling and placement of things had a special significance, hinted at by the lengthy names of the various areas of the garden, like "Painted Boat in Misty Rain".

To one side of the garden is the "Tower of Cosmic Reflections." Here, they have a Chinese teahouse operated by Tao of Tea, an uberteahouse in Portland. They have a tea menu describing teas and their origins, how they're grown, the best way to drink them, etc. It was really quite silly, but Zorah and I decided to go there for a little snack anyway. We were seated on creaky Chinese antiques, charming and authentic, and ordered hibiscus tea and peppermint tea, with a lotus seed mooncake. A mooncake is a traditional Chinese pastry, usually served for the Moon Festival. A light dough is wrapped around a filling of beans, lotus seed, or what have you, then the little package is pressed into a mooncake mold, removed from the mold, and baked.

By the time we were done sipping our tea and nibbilng on lotus root paste, it was almost closing time at the garden. They rent the place out for weddings, and one was scheduled for that very day. So we left, but not before taking a picture from the window of the teahouse. If I could only visit one place in Portland, however, I would go to the Japanese Garden, which seemed to be more organic, serene, and less fussy.