The Chinese Garden of Friendship at Darling Harbor in Sydney is a magical place. Based on the concept of Feng Shui, which blends the spiritual world with the material world, the Chinese Garden is a true oasis of beauty right in the middle of Australia’s biggest city. If you’re coming to Sydney, this is a place not to be missed. Grab some travel insurance and see why Sydneysiders love this place.

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The Chinese Garden story

Designed on the basis of traditional Chinese architecture in Sydney’s sister city of Guangzhou, the Chinese Garden was completed in 1988 for Australia’s bicentennial celebrations. The garden was instantly popular in cosmopolitan Sydney, and thousands of explorers soon came to check it out.

The Chinese Garden is an extremely interesting piece of architectural design. The garden is based on a Ming Dynasty private garden, when the art of Chinese gardening was at its zenith. In the Ming era, artificial mountains, lakes and other exotic concepts were added to the ancient original concepts. Buildings were made to harmonize with these environments.

These incredible Ming gardens are so popular to this day in modern China that they remain revered as true Chinese cultural symbols. Sydney’s Chinese Garden contains all the elements of the best of Chinese garden design in one hectare.

Exploring the Chinese Garden

The Garden of Friendship is designed around a lake, the Lake of Brightness. At the entry point visitors have three basic directional choices- They can walk around the covered area left or right, or proceed through straight ahead to the waterside.

Whichever way you go, the first thing you’ll appreciate is how many ideas and concepts the Chinese Garden contains. On the city side across the lake is a mountain covered with pines, and a large observatory platform. A waterfall cascades down from the left hand side of the mountain. A zigzag walkway across the side of the lake under willows leads to the mountain path on the right. To the left is another path through a grove of black-stemmed Sacred Bamboo.

Viewing areas and special features cluster throughout the garden. The interestingly shaped rocks are features of traditional Chinese garden design, with their own Feng Shui characteristics. There are so many different things to see you could be forgiven for thinking you’re in a maze.

Many people visit the garden, and lose track of time, simply because of the sheer number of things to see and do:

The traditional Chinese costumes: You can dress like a Ming Emperor.

The Chinese Garden shop: From the little souvenirs to the mindblowing big art pieces, the shop is always worth a visit.

The exploration: Learning the story of each of the garden’s features is like a trip through Chinese history. There’s a story for everything, including the fascinating Chinese bonsai, known as penjing, is the original form of bonsai, dating back to 200 BC. Penjing uses much the same principles as Chinese Gardening, and the aesthetics of the shapes are very important.

People like the place so much they have their weddings there, and there are some people that visit the Chinese Garden every season to see all its various moods.