dream Chinese garden
¡@A retired Taipei professor has spent 10 years building a spectacular traditional Chinese garden in the hills at Sungshan, suburban Taipei.
¡@Compared with many parks and gardens in Taiwan, the Huang Chan Garden built by Prof. Yi (see picture) looks more like an ancient Chinese garden with pavilions, cottages and a wooden bridge over a mountain stream. The flowers and golden fish in the garden attract many trekkers who climb the Four Beast Hill every morning. When the trekkers rest inside the cottages, they can read Chinese poems on the cottage walls or look down through a square hole in the floor to the golden fish swimming in a crevice below.
¡@The viewing hole though the wooden floor is an architectural design invented in ancient Chinese gardens for emperors to enjoy watching the fish without having to walk into the courtyard. Now they can only be found in the Forbidden City in Peking or the Fisherman's Garden in Soochow.
¡@Prof. Yi first got the idea of the garden 12 years ago when he sought shelter in a mountain cave from the rain. He began by enlarging the cave and then paving a mountain path with rocks he carried up the hill.
¡@Then he lugged wooden planks up the hill to build the two cottages and two pavilions. He refused help from other trekkers after a hired carpenter ruined the door of a cabinet in one cottage. He said he is now a qualified carpenter, mason and gardener.
¡@"See? The rock I laid cannot be moved. I saw to it that the rocks would not shift and spoil the landscape," he said.
¡@The project, which has cost NT$100,000, is only half finished. The professor wants to build one more pavilion, a wooden arch and a terrace from where visitors can look down at a water fall.
¡@"It will take a lifetime. But it's my dream. Who doesn't have a dream?" he says.
¡@Yi spends four days a week working on the garden and teaches at a private college on the other two days. He has faced strong opposition from his family who think he is wasting money and getting nothing in return.
¡@"At least I get a spiritual reward, I told my wife. She has spent more money on painting. She bought expensive paints from Japan and came only second in a painting exhibition in her company. As if she had not wasted enough money, she threw a party for friends and colleagues."
¡@Yi visited the mainland three times. Instead of gifts for his family, he brought back bags of rocks from Mainland Mountains. The rocks and pebbles from all parts of Taiwan decorate the caves and ponds in Huang Chan Yuan. "It is because I have not destroyed the natural scenes. In fact, I have done a lot of good things for this hill: I built a footpath and installed running water pipes. The trekkers feel that my garden is part of the landscape."
¡@Prof. Yi refused to reveal his full name and said he prefers rainy weather so that he can do his carpentry work without interruption from trekkers. "If a visitor asks me where is the professor, I point to the hilltop and say "He is there" and continue my work. There is so much to do and so little time."
By Lee Yi-nan¡@§õ©É¨k