Chinese friendship garden to open in St. Paul, Minnesota

The St. Paul-Changsha China Friendship Garden in Phalen Park in St. Paul, the state capital of Minnesota, will open to the public on Friday.

Workers from China and Minnesota are currently adding the finishing touches to a three-story granite and wood pavilion, called the Xiang Jiang Pavilion.

The 1.2-acre garden at Lake Phalen is the result of 12 years of effort by Linda Mealey-Lohmann, an American who majored in Chinese at the University of Minnesota in the early 1980s. According to Mealey-Lohmann, learning about Chinese culture fostered in her a deep love for China.

Over the past 12 years, Mealey-Lohmann has shuttled between China and the US 22 times, touring numerous Chinese cities and taking thousands of photos. Her experiences in China over this more than decade of time inspired her to work toward the construction of a Chinese garden in Minnesota.

St. Paul established a sister city relationship with Changsha, capital of China's Hunan Province, in 1988. This relationship helped facilitate the construction of the garden, the only authentic Changsha-style Chinese garden in Minnesota.

It is also the first sister-city Chinese garden in Minnesota. 

According to Zhou Chenxuan, board member of the Minnesota China Friendship Garden Society, construction of the Chinese garden is being carried out in three phases, and is expected to cost $7 million when finally finished. About $1 million has been raised so far, mostly through individual donors.

The whole project, which will complete its first phase on Friday, is expected to be completed in 2019.

Upon completion, the Chinese garden will become a place for celebration, recreation, education, cultural performances and relaxation.

A symbol of Minnesota's long-standing friendship with China and a recognition of its sister-city relationships, the Chinese garden will be an important cultural bridge to China, serve as a recognition of the contributions of the Chinese-American community to Minnesota and help boost trade and tourism between China and Minnesota.