Chinese gardens blossom across world

China has exported more than 40 classical gardens from Suzhou, home of "China's English gardens," to 30 or more countries and regions.

The gardens first went global in 1979 when Chinese horticulturists and architects were commissioned to build the Ming Xuan, or Astor Court, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Although occupying only an area of some 400 square meters, the Court featured the quintessence of Suzhou gardens from zigzag corridors to carefully-cultivated rock structures and water features, He Fengchun, head of the Suzhou garden design institute, said in an article.

The classical gardens of Suzhou originated from the eastern city in Jiangsu Province, and later became an aesthetic genre of classical Chinese landscape architecture.

Shortly after the Ming Xuan debuted, several others appeared. Among the more famous are the Ruisu Garden at the Geneva-based headquarters of the World Trade Organization, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance at the Huntington Library in the U.S., and the Yili Garden in outskirts of Paris.

Charlie Hales, mayor of Portland in the U.S., where another garden has been set up, said the city's Lan Su Chinese Garden, serves as a window to Chinese culture and encourages many people to learn more.

The group of Suzhou gardens, spanning a period of almost one thousand years, are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage. Endi