US woman's dream of Chinese park nears fruition

SAINT PAUL, United States－Sinophile Linda Mealey-Lohmann is excited and delighted at the prospect of a Chinese garden being completed in her hometown.

"We have engraved the naming stone and we hope to get that installed before it gets too cold," Mealey-Lohmann, president of the Minnesota China Friendship Garden Society, told Xinhua recently.

The 1.2-hectare St. Paul-Changsha China Friendship Garden is being finalized in Phalen Park in the Minnesota capital. St. Paul has had a sister-city relationship with Changsha, Hunan province, since 1988 and the garden, or Liu Ming Yuan, has become a symbol of Minnesota's long-standing friendship with China.

Last year, following a lengthy design and construction phase, the ambitious project got underway. The garden opened to the public this summer as the first-phase construction neared completion.

St. Paul's mayor Melvin Carter, noting the 31-year relationship between the two cities and the "incredible opportunities for exchange and enrichment", said the garden marked another milestone in the sister-city partnership.

Featuring an entrance arch, a Hmong Heritage Wall and an open air pavilion－which is a replica of the famed Aiwan Pavilion in Changsha－the garden is largely the result of Mealey-Lohmann's hard work.

She developed an interest in China about 40 years ago at the University of Minnesota, when she switched from a music major to East Asian studies and graduated with a degree in Chinese language and literature.

"Over that long history of having connections with China and traveling to China I have come to love Chinese culture, Chinese architecture and Chinese art. And I really wanted to bring that to Minnesota," said Mealey-Lohmann, who has visited China 23 times.

Fluent in Mandarin, she has adopted many authentic Chinese customs, such as practicing Tai Chi, drinking Chinese tea and studying calligraphy.

Her drive to build a Chinese garden in Minnesota started two decades ago when she and C.C. Hsiao, both board members of the Minnesota chapter of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association, came up with the bold idea.

Mealey-Lohmann created a nonprofit organization and led a team to research Chinese gardens in China and the United States. Since then, she has shuttled between China and the US, touring Chinese cities and taking thousands of photos. The project is expected to be finished this year.

"To actually sit here today under this incredible large structure, a replica of a world-famous architecture in Changsha, words fail me," Mealey-Lohmann said at the Aiwan Pavilion.

"Up above here we have an image of a peony, and that is the king of flowers, which represents virtue and beauty… There is also a six petal lotus, right up here. And of course, that represents nobility and how it rises out of the mud and muck into this beautiful flower."

Mealey-Lohmann said it was important for visitors to learn about the symbols and shared values between Chinese and Western cultures.

She said the fact that the park was so well received by the local community and tourists was evidence that cultural exchanges and mutual understanding are important.

Mealey-Lohmann hopes the garden will continue to build bridges between the people of Minnesota and the people of China to improve communication, friendship and cultural understanding.

"It is a lifetime dream to be able to sit here and think that all future generations can enjoy this and can learn about Chinese culture and can love Chinese culture the way I do," she said.