Winding Walkways to Private Places of Peace
Chinese and Japanese gardens often build up a sense of being taken out of the ordinary world into somewhere especially peaceful and delightful.
Room With a View
At some Chinese gardens, you enter along winding, covered walkways with
roofs and elaborately shaped windows. These windows frame particular
views of the garden for people on the walkway. Gateways in unusual shapes
also frame views.
Often these gateways are shaped like a full moon and
hence called ‘moon gates’. The walkways can lead to a beautiful pavilion
beside a pool or on a little hill or in woodland, where the idea is that
you feel content just to sit and be.
Japanese gardens sometimes use very winding paths to prolong your journey to a special resting place to make you feel you’ve come far from the outside world. There may be little bridges and gates to pass through or stepping-stones to heighten this feeling. There may be a thick band of bushes round the outside to make the outside world seem far away.
In these gardens, rather than walk wherever you like, you follow pathways which create a planned tour of the garden and give you a planned experience with particular views.
Continue reading: Representing the elements.
Other Sources of Information
www.chinaplanner.com/gardens/ - For information and photos of Chinese gardens.
learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/intro/ - For virtual tours of Japanese gardens.