Garden sights in Asia
-
A
Garden of Dreams
The beautifully restored Swapna Bagaicha, or Garden of Dreams is one of the most serene and beautiful enclaves in Kathmandu.
reviewed
-
B
Osho Teerth gardens
The five-hectare Osho Teerth gardens behind the Bhagwan Rajneesh ashram commune are accessible all day for those with a meditation pass.
reviewed
-
C
Chinzan-Sō
This lovely, hilly 66,000-sq-metre strolling garden was part of the estate of a Meiji-era politician and statesman, and lining its many pathways are a number of antiquities transported from all over Japan. Most notable is a 16.7m three-storey pagoda, estimated at nearly a millennium old, which was transported from the Hiroshima area, as well as lanterns, monuments and torii. We don’t particularly love the contemporary construction of hotels and wedding halls around it, but all that is forgotten in the garden’s lovely soba shop Mucha-an.
reviewed
-
D
Thread Garden
Your appreciation of the Thread Garden rests on your love of irony and kitsch. If that threshold is low, you’ll be disappointed. If it’s decent, you may, if you’re in a good mood, enjoy the ‘miracle’ (official description and just slight hyperbole) that is 150 species of ‘plants’ from around the world meticulously re-created using ‘hand-wound’ thread. The technique was perfected by Keralan artist Anthony Joseph and the work took 50 craftspeople 12 years to complete, which is either very impressive or kinda sad.
reviewed
-
E
Bali Orchid Garden
Given Bali's warm weather and rich volcanic soil, no one should be surprised that orchids thrive in abundance here. At this garden you can see thousands of orchids in a variety of settings. It's 3km north of Sanur along Jl Ngurah Rai, just past the major intersection with the coast road.
reviewed
-
F
Flower Exhibition Centre
When the orchids bloom (March) it’s worth peeping inside the Flower Exhibition Centre, a modestly sized tropical greenhouse full of exotic plants.
reviewed
-
Lin Family Mansion & Garden
The house was built in 1853 but opened to the public only in 2001. It's a prime example of a Qing-period mansion, with receiving halls, library and performance stages. There are eye-popping uses of gold leaf on the doors and gates among other decorations of auspicious imagery. From the Grain Viewing Pavilion family members were able to look out over the farmers at work. It is said that the residential buildings are all tongue-and-groove construction, meaning that no nails were used. Plus it's all set amid ponds and gardens you might swear you've seen in paintings.
Driving through this busy section of town, it may be difficult to believe that this was once all farmland. Ye…
reviewed
-
Shalimar Gardens
To the northeast of town, about 4km from the main train station, this was one of three gardens named Shalimar Gardens created by Shah Jahan in the 17th century. It's also the only surviving Mughal garden of several built in Lahore. The Shalimar Gardens are now rather rundown and a far cry from their former glory, but they're still popular with locals. Many of the fountains were under renovation at the time of research and operate at particular times.
The walled gardens were laid out in a central tier with two smaller and lower ones to either side, with a pool of corresponding size, in keeping with the mathematical principles of Mughal design. Visitors originally entered a…
reviewed
-
Hakgala Gardens
The Hakgala Gardens, 10km southeast of Nuwara Eliya (and about 200m lower), was originally a plantation of cinchona, the plant from which the antimalarial drug quinine is extracted. Later, the gardens were used for experiments in acclimatising temperate-zone plants to life in the tropics. The gardens were run by the same family for three generations until the 1940s. Today Hakgala sprawls across 27 hectares and is famed for its roses, ferns and medicinal plants.
Legend has it that Hanuman, the monkey god, was sent by Rama to the Himalayas to find a particular medicinal herb. He forgot which herb he was looking for and decided to bring a chunk of the Himalayas back in his j…
reviewed
-
G
Koishikawa Kōrakuen (Koishikawa Kōraku Garden)
This 70,000-sq-metre formal Japanese garden is one of Tokyo’s most beautiful and least visited (by foreigners at least) – if you have the slightest interest in gardens, you should make a beeline here. Established in the mid-17th century as the property of the Tokugawa clan, the garden incorporates elements of Chinese and Japanese landscaping, although nowadays the shakkei (borrowed scenery) also includes the other-worldly cool of the Tokyo Dome. The garden is particularly well known for plum trees in February, irises in June and autumn colours. Of special note is the Engetsu-kyō (Full-Moon Bridge), which dates from the early Edo period. Kōrakuen means ‘the garden of…
reviewed
Advertisement
-
H
Manshu-in
About 30 minutes’ walk north of Shisen-dō you’ll reach the stately gate of Manshu-in, a popular retreat of former emperors and a great escape from the crowds. The temple was originally founded by Saichō on Hiei-zan but was relocated here at the beginning of the Edo period by Ryōshōhō, the son of Prince Hachijōnomiya Tomohito (who built Katsura Rikyū). The graceful temple architecture is often compared with Katsura Rikyū for its detailed woodwork and rare works of art, such as fusuma-e sliding doors painted by Kanō Eitoku, a famed artist of the Momoyama period. The karesansui garden by Kobori Enshū features a sea of gravel intended to symbolise the flow of a w…
reviewed
-
I
Lou Lim Ioc Garden
This picturesque Chinese garden was originally owned by Lou Wa Sio back in the 19th century and later inherited by his son Lou Lim Ioc. Now it’s open to the public and local people use the park to practise t’ai chi or play traditional musical instruments. It contains huge shady trees, lotus ponds, golden bamboo groves, grottoes and a bridge with nine turns (since evil spirits can only move in straight lines). The Victorian-style Lou Lim Ioc Garden Pavilion was where the Lou family received guests, including Dr Sun Yat-sen, and is now used for exhibits and for recitals during the Macau International Music Festival in late October/November. Adjacent to the garden is the…
reviewed
-
Yuen Po Street Bird Garden & Flower Market
In this tiny but enchanting corner of Mong Kok, you should find a handful of old men out ‘walking’ their caged songbirds. Stick around long enough and you should see birds being fed squirming caterpillars with chopsticks. Birds are considered harbingers of good fortune, which is why you’ll see some people carrying them to the racetrack. There are also birds for sale from the stalls here, along with elaborate cages carved from teak and bamboo. Adjacent to the bird garden is the flower market on Flower Market Rd, which keeps theoretically the same hours but only gets busy after 10am, especially on Sunday. To get to the bird garden and flower market, from the Prince Ed…
reviewed
-
Takht-e Safar
Spread across a hill 5km north of Herat, Takht-e Safar is a popular place for picnics. Built as a pleasure garden for Sultan Baiqara in the 14th century, it's an oasis of green, with good views to the city. It's a popular place for picnics and to catch the sunset (when cars full of wedding parties often descend on the scene).
At the bottom of the hill is a small theme park, complete with rides and a giant concrete pigeon. As you go up the hill, you pass a large swimming pool, popular with males of the species in the summer months. There's a small café offering drinks and ice cream. Further up the hill is a wedding club, backed by a large mural of Ismail Khan with Ahmad Sh…
reviewed
-
J
Takayama-jō
The hilly districts in the east side of town are linked by a walking trail, particularly enjoyable in the early morning or late afternoon. Various trails lead through the Shiroyama-kōen park and up the mountainside to the ruins of the castle, Takayama-jō. As you descend, you can take a look at the temple, Shōren-ji, which was transferred to this site from the Shōkawa Valley when a dam was built there in 1960.
There are over a dozen temples (one houses the youth hostel) and shrines you can wander around before taking in the greenery of the park, Shiroyama-kōen. The tourist information office has descriptions of the temples and a simple map, or the Hida Takayama pamph…
reviewed
-
K
Shanghai Botanical Gardens
The location just off the busy and polluted Longwu Rd is hardly idyllic, but the Botanical Gardens offer an escape from Shànghǎi’s synthetic cityscape. The Tropicarium gives you the chance to get close to tropical flora, and once inside, you can take the lift to the 6th floor for an impressive view of the gardens. Some of the flower arrangements are a little twee, but the place is well-maintained and bustling with visitors. The northern side of the gardens has a dusty memorial temple, originally built in 1728. It’s dedicated to Huang Daopo, who supposedly kick-started Shànghǎi’s cotton industry by bringing the knowledge of spinning and weaving to the region from Hǎinán.…
reviewed
-
L
Residency
The large collection of gardens and ruins that makes up the Residency offers a fascinating historical glimpse of the beginning of the end for the British Raj. Built in 1800, the Residency became the stage for the most dramatic events of the 1857 First War of Independence, the Siege of Lucknow, a 147-day siege that claimed the lives of thousands. The compound has been left as it was at the time of the final relief and the walls are still pockmarked from bullets and cannon balls. The well-designed museum in the main Residency building includes a scale model of the original buildings. Downstairs are the huge basement rooms where many of the British women and children lived t…
reviewed
-
Shenyang Botanical Garden
These rambling gardens are filled with plants and flowers native to northeastern China. Special exhibitions highlight tulips (May), peonies (June) and chrysanthemums (October). Even more entertaining than the vegetation are the nearly 50 bridges suspended across a shallow river that visitors try to traverse. There are narrow log bridges - like over-water balance beams - as well as rolling barrels, swinging bridges, floating rafts and more.
Cross if you dare; you'll likely end up in the water!
Trains run about once an hour from the north and south stations to the Botanical Garden (30 minutes), about 20km east of the city centre.
reviewed
-
Lung Tsai Ng Garden
This magical garden southwest of Ngong Ping, with a lotus pond crossed by a rickety zigzag bridge, was built by a wealthy merchant in the 1930s in a small valley near where the village of Lung Tsai once stood. The site is rather derelict, but atmospheric nonetheless, and the gardens are in excellent condition. You can get here via a water catchment path and trail from the Tai O Rd, a continuation of South Lantau Rd just west of Keung Shan. Alight from the bus after the Kwun Yam temple on Tai O Rd, which is about 2km past the turn-off for the Tian Tan Buddha. You’ll see a country park sign and the start of the water catchment.
reviewed
-
Botanic Garden Ubud
Discover the stories behind the many plants that make Bali green at Botanic Garden Ubud, on the road to Penelokan. Spread over more than 6 hectares, the many gardens are devoted to various themes such as orchids (in greenhouses), Bali-grown plants like cinnamon and vanilla, flowering butterfly-friendly gardens, an enormous lotus pond and much more. The work of Stefan Reisner, the gardens are a good counterpoint to art-filled museums. Get lost in the maze and when you finally escape, take comfort from Bali's medicinal plants. The exhibit about the cacti of East Bali is worth the cost of admission alone.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
M
Jizō-In
This delightful little temple could be called the ‘poor man’s Saihō-ji’. It’s only a few minutes’ walk south of Saihō-ji in the same atmospheric bamboo groves. While the temple does not boast any spectacular buildings or treasures, it has a nice moss garden and is almost completely ignored by tourists, making it a great place to sit and contemplate. From the parking lot near Saihō-ji, there is a small stone staircase that climbs to the road leading to Jizō-in (it helps to ask someone to point the way, as it’s not entirely clear).
reviewed
-
N
Botanical Gardens
Founded in 1786, the 109-hectare Botanical Gardens played an important role in cultivating tea long before it became a household commodity. Today there’s a cactus house, palm collection, river-overlook and a boating-lake with splendid Giant Amazon Lily pads but the biggest draw is a 250-year-old banyan tree, 140m across. It’s reputedly the world’s largest but the central trunk rotted away in the 1920s leaving a curious ‘forest’ of cross-branches and linked aerial roots that have become virtual trees of their own.
reviewed
-
Butterfly Sanctuary
It's hardly a place you'd expect butterflies to hang around, but hang around they do - from branches and leaves all over the garden of Julian Jumalon's home. You will receive a lecture and tour showing you butterflies in various stages of their lifecycle, and butterfly collections and artworks made from damaged butterfly wings - even a presidential portrait!
The best time of day for viewing is the morning, and the best time of year is from June to February, when the butterflies are breeding. Ring first to make a booking.
reviewed
-
O
Shōsei-en
About five minutes’ walk east of Higashi Hongan-ji, this garden is a nice green island in a vast expanse of concrete. While it’s not on par with many other gardens in Kyoto, it’s worth a visit if you find yourself in need of something to do near the station, perhaps paired with a visit to the temple. The lovely grounds, incorporating the Kikoku-tei villa, were completed in 1657. Bring a picnic (and some bread to feed the carp) or just stroll around the beautiful Ingetsu-ike pond.
reviewed
-
P
Zuihō-in
Another subtemple of Daitoku-ji, Zuihō-in enshrines the 16th-century Christian daimyō (domain lord) Ōtomo Sōrin. In the early 1960s, a landscape architect named Shigemori Misuzu rearranged the stones in the back rock garden into the shape of a crucifix! More interesting is the main rock garden, which is raked into appealing patterns that remind one of water ripples. It’s roughly in the middle of the complex; once again, you may have to ask for directions.
reviewed
