| Lan Su Chinese Garden | |
| Map: | Portland#Oregon#USA |
| Map Label: | Lan Su Chinese Garden |
| Type: | Chinese garden |
| Location: | Portland, Oregon, United States |
| Coords: | 45.5257°N -122.673°W |
| Area: | 40000abbr=onNaNabbr=on |
| Opened: | 2000 |
| Website: | lansugarden.org |
Lan Su Chinese Garden, formerly the Portland Classical Chinese Garden and titled the Garden of Awakening Orchids, is a walled Chinese garden enclosing a full city block, roughly 40000square feet in the Chinatown area of the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. The garden is influenced by many of the famous classical gardens in Suzhou.
In the early 1980s an effort was started to build a Chinese garden in Portland, and in 1988 Suzhou and Portland became sister cities. Portland mayor Vera Katz continued those efforts in the 1990s and assisted in the non-profit group that operates the garden in finding a site for a garden. The garden was designed by Kuang Zhen and built by 65 artisans from Suzhou on land donated by NW Natural on a 99-year lease;[1] groundbreaking occurred in July 1999, and construction was completed 14 months later at a cost of about $12.8 million. 500 tons of rock, including Chinese scholar's rocks from Lake Tai (Taihu stone), were brought from China and used in the garden. The garden's grand opening was on September 14, 2000.[1] The construction of the central lake has created problems at times, such as leakage and one case of three visitors fallen into it.[2]
Originally named Portland’s Classical Chinese Garden, the garden was renamed to Lan Su Chinese Garden in January 2010 in celebration of the garden’s tenth anniversary.[1] The name derives from the combination of the characters Lan from the Chinese translation of Portland and Su from Suzhou and is a representation of both cities being present in the garden. The character used for Lan (simplified Chinese 兰) (traditional Chinese 蘭) also means orchid and the character used for Su (simplified Chinese 苏) (traditional Chinese 蘇) also means to awaken, so one can also translate the name as Garden of Awakening Orchids.[3]
In 2024, Portland City Officials erected a security fence around the Lan Su Chinese Garden to stop repeated vandalism[4]
About 90% of the plants featured in the garden are indigenous to China.[5] However, no plants were brought from China due to import bans. Instead, many plants were found in gardens and nurseries in Oregon, having grown from plants brought over before the import ban. Some plants in the garden are as old as 100 years. There are over a hundred trees, orchids, water plants, perennials, bamboos, and unusual shrubs located throughout the garden. In total there are more than 400 species. Some of the plants that can be found in the garden include:
The dominant feature is the artificial Lake Zither at the center of the garden. Water covers an astonishing 8,000 square feet (20%) of the garden's total area, its visual impact makes it feel much more widespread and dominant throughout the space.[7]
It includes examples of a number of structures common to Chinese gardens, including covered walkways (lang), bridges (qiáo), and structures such as: