Vancouver's Chinese Garden

In 1989 when I made my first round trip cross-country by Amtrak, I spent two nights in Vancouver. I did not go there by train, but by bus. My sister and I rode with friends to the Monterrey Peninsula and toured there. Then she and I took a bus to San Francisco and toured that city. Each of us had been there before, but we enjoyed seeing the city again. Two days later, my sister took the bus back to Los Angeles, and I took the bus to Vancouver. So far as I can recall, there was no coastal Amtrak train in California at the that time, but I could be wrong.

My bus ride to Vancouver was an overnight trip. I left San Francisco about 3 p.m. and traveled all night, arriving in Vancouver about 1 or 2 p.m. I stayed at the YMCA there.

The first night I walked up to a park to listen a band concert. There were many people walking along the street, all headed to the band concert. I enjoyed the music, but just as much I enjoyed the sun that was still shining at 9 p.m. The sky stayed light until 10 p.m., whereas in Fitchburg, the sky is dark at 9 p.m. in mid July.

The next day I took a tour of Vancouver. One of the places we visited was the Chinese Garden.

I have been a writer most of my adult life. In 1989 I was a free-lance writer, writing for various magazines, most local publications. I remember that during the tour, the guide said the garden and the house were designed as a place where a writer might live. As we passed through one of the rooms, I remember the guide saying something like, “This is where the Writer would write.” It was a tranquil room, sparsely furnished with a desk, equipped with pens and inks and a scroll. Next we walked outside to the small lake (really more like a pond). I remember we passed through a moon gate. We looked out on the water, and it was a placid, dull green, with nary a ripple in the water. I don't remember seeing many plants or even koi fish. The guide said the green color came from the green clay that has been imported from China and used to line the small lake or pond. The purpose was to create a placid, quiet, calm environment where the writer could meditate.

I have never been able to return to Vancouver, although I do have hopes of going there again some day. But I will always remember the Chinese garden, particularly the pond. I am a writer, and I love to garden, so the Chinese garden appealed to me from several perspectives.

When I watched the Olympics on TV, I was hoping the Today Show would do a feature on the Chinese Garden. They did, or at some point NBC did, but the feature was a disappointment. A lot the images shown were dark and poorly lit. Maybe nothing could be done about that.

I was hoping they would show a panoramic view of the pond, but they didn't. I wanted to recapture what I had seen 20 years ago. The feature did have a wide view of the pond, but it was not really panoramic. All of the scenes of the garden and the house were rather cramped, as though taken with a narrow angle lens. I am not a photographer, so perhaps there were reasons

why the video was filmed this way, but it was a disappointment. Later, I looked up the Chinese Garden on the Internet, and I found the pictures were not much better. Maybe in my mind I have created a more panoramic view of the garden then I actually saw. I understand from what I have read that each time we remember an event, our memory changes slightly. So maybe that is what is at work. But I would love to return to Vancouver and see for myself.

Vancouver being the host city for the Olympic Games brought memories of my visit there 20 years ago back to me. That is one reason why I watched the Today Show each morning, hoping I would see the Chinese Garden and also more scenes of Vancouver.

One morning, I think it was this week, the Today Show promised a tour of the city of Victoria and high tea at the Empress Hotel. This, too, was a disappointment.

I had been to Victoria and Vancouver Island on the second day of my visit to the city of Vancouver. But the Today Show feature simply showed the Today crew tramping across a bridge to get to the airplane, which flew them to the island. Then it showed them walking through a reception line outside the Empress Hotel, and another cramped view of them eating high tea. There was nice shot of the table arrayed with pastries and tea sandwiches. Then the Today folks plunged into sampling the food, saying how delicious it was. There was very little information provided about the history of the hotel nor and the wide-view shot of the dining room showed very little detail. The room's features all looked very distant and not very distinct.

When I was there, there was a big ceramic elephant in the center of room, and tea was served by waiters dressed in safari outfits: khaki shorts , shirts and pith helmets. Of course, that was all to create an experience for tourists. The servers who waited on the Today Show staff were dressed in what looked to me like Victorian dresses. The camera did not show a close up of what they were wearing. Also I noticed that many of the camera angles faced into the light, so that the faces of the people being photographed were shadowed, and I, at least, could not see their faces very clearly as I watched them on TV. The feature was very short. It provided very little information and was far from being a travelogue. I was disappointed.

My own memories of Vancouver, the Chinese Garden, Vancouver Island and the Empress Hotel are much more vivid.