This beautiful garden is a little piece of Guangzhou in the middle of Sydney’s CBD. It is an oasis of peace amidst the noise, the cement and the steel of the surrounding city. You can perceive how people are transformed after being a few minutes inside this place, they smile more, seem more serene and enjoy discovering the little and big lizards around. The garden is a place of contrasts and balancing opposites: the rushing waterfall against the still water of the lake, the short soft mondo grass beneath long-stemmed bamboo, as well as the contrast of the nature with the surrounding cities. All the garden is governed by the Taoist principle of Ying-Yang, and it helps to find balance and peace of mind. Having this garden in this place makes a big difference to the mental health of people in this area, is wonderful and enjoyable.
This experience also made me reflect about access rights to public spaces. To enter the garden there is a fee of $12 (regular price for adults) which feels odd because this garden was a ‘gift of friendship’ from the city of Guangzhou to the City of Sydney in 1988, so it should be a free public space. I understand the place has running costs, and need to pay employees to maintain it as beautiful as it is, which by the way, the maintenance employees are doing a great job, as you can see. However, the entrance fee made me realize that it would be an expensive luxury to come to this garden every day, and some people might think about it twice, or run a mental cost-benefit analysis on their head between having the peace and tranquility for a few hours one day vs. the cost of those $12 and the opportunity cost. It doesn’t feel right to pay for public space, this was a city to city gift and therefore should be for the people, and specially for the Chinese community who advocated for this space, and who I bet, otherwise would miss this type of awesome Chinese gardens while living in Sydney.
The garden also has restaurant in site whose profits could contribute to the running costs of the surrounding garden (which is the main attractive of the restaurant), thus allowing to drop the entrance fee, and allow more people to fairly enjoy this beautiful space in the middle of Sydney city.
