Took a trip out to Staten Island to visit the Staten Island, Snug Harbor Botanical Garden's Chinese Scholar's Garden.
寄興園
Jìxīng Yuán
This garden is one of only a few Chinese scholar gardens in the U.S. It was built back in 1999 from prefabricated parts made in China and assembled on site by Chinese workers from Suzhou.
I had the opportunity to visit it in 2000 when it was still new. At that time, there were few planting visible in the garden. Today, 14 years later, it looked very different. Plantings now cover much of the structure, but also make the environment within seem more authentic. The structure needs some repair work, but overall it is in very good shape.
In addition to the images below, I came across the following video-tour. It is worth a look because it gives an authentic feeling of what it is like to walk through the garden and it was filmed in the fall when the colors are spectacular.
