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MALAYSIA-CHINA FRIENDSHIP GARDEN

Precint 4, Putrajaya, Malaysia - October 2014

Malaysia now has a little part of China in Putrajaya at the recently built Malaysia-China Friendship Garden. Visitors can now experience a feeling of being in China while still in tropical Malaysia in this beautiful place. It was built by Chinese craftsmen with materials and timber pieces brought in from China. It is a place that should be not be missed when in Putrajaya.

Back in August, while cycling at the Putrajaya lakeside, we passed by this entrance with a distinct arching roof. Hmmm.... looks interesting....

... we popped inside to have a quick look. The place was still under construction with workers putting in the finishing touches. A supervisor informed us that almost all the building finishing material were brought in from China, tiles, roof tiles, etc. Even the elaborate roof timber structure were brought in in dismantled pieces.

The temple is a joint effort between Dongguan People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (DGPAFFC), Perbadanan Putrjaya (PPJ) and Malaysia-China Friendship Association (PPMC). The project was launched earlier this year, for a write-up on this launching, click here.

Entrance from the car-park side is through the circular archway. Looking like a keyhole, perhaps it unlocks what lies beyond for visitors to see.

Just behind the entrance is this wall, it holds a commemorative carved dark granite panel and direct visitors to walk along granite paved pathways on the right to go further in.
Let's go into the garden.

To the right is an archway with swooping curled roofs, this is the entrance from the lakeside. Yes, the temple sits just beside the Putrajaya Lakes.

To the left the garden starts, it may not look like much of a garden yet, but this is just the start; once the greenery matures it will look even better. Behind the shrubs, a roofed corridor can be seen leading to a pavilion.

Standing at the top of the lower garden, one feels like one is in China. The plants and trees have been selected well. Though these are tropical plants, they give an essence of being in a temperate land. The cold grey walls adds to this cooler looking atmosphere. Only the Seri Saujana Bridge in the background is a reminder that one is indeed in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

At the end of the right pathway, steps lead up to another one.

Several simple rectangular granite benches dot the garden, allowing the more artistic to relax in the calming atmosphere; tugging at their creative inner-self to surface.

At the top of that pathway is a small pond, on the other side is a small building. The timber plaque above this building's doorway states that it is the "Neighbourhood Court". Sitting on a small platform overlooking the pond, it is built of dark timber and has the same sweeping roof design. Two timber carved lattices, at the pond-ward side, lets air freely flow in and ventilate the inside. A small open courtyard surrounds it on two side, on one other side is the corridor that leads to this pavilion.

A closer view of the timber lattices on the two sides of the wide doorway. The centre timber lattice is actually within the building, on the far end wall.

I take a walk around the pond to go up to the covered corridor. My walk is a slower one, as I take my time to appreciate the garden - it is a beauty of trees and shrubs of different shades of green speckled by some yellow and blue of the flowers.

On the way up, I noticed how the inter-spaced wall gives peeks of the garden from different angles as one walks on, encouraging one to proceed on to find out what's round the next corner.

From the pavilion I look down and see that the pond has several smaller cascading levels.

From the opposite side the lake-side entrance reflects onto the pond with a perfect poetic symmetry.

The upturned roof of this entrance looks like an eagle, with wings outspread, ready to soar up.
The characters on the timber signboards next to the doorway roughly translates to:
a. The top sign - "Knowledge Garden"
b. The right and left sign, a poem - "Close friends are hidden in the sea, a flourishing garden let us catch up on our friendship."