Thursday, October 7, 2010

The Chinese Garden of Serenity

In the South of Malta, in the quiet village of Santa Lucija, there is this beautiful Chinese garden which unfortunately few people seem to know of. This morning I grabbed the opportunity to pay a visit to this garden, and together with little Zack, I spent a quiet morning soaking up the soothing ambience that envelops this garden. Inside this garden I was embraced by its exceptional beauty and serenity. The artistic architectures just took my breath away and I couldn't stop admiring the mosaic on the ground which had been painstakingly done by hand.


The specific design of this garden makes you go through a personal rebirth and you feel the stress of modern life slowly abandoning you. Here life, with all its challenges is symbolically represented as a winding corridor at the northern end of the garden. The bamboo shoots represent meditation on life. Sadly, the fountain at garden's entrance which should represent birth was undergoing maintenance. The garden’s courtyard with its fishpond, rock garden, and circular door takes you to a magical place where you cannot help but be at peace with yourself.

This garden was constructed in 1998 and built by a group of foreign Chinese workers. If I remember correctly it was a sort of twinning project which the council of Sta Lucija held with a city in the Republic of China.
I believe this Garden of Serenity provides the ideal environment to allow one's creativity to blossom. There are so many quiet places where one could sketch, write a story, or simply read a book. This garden really lives up to its name “Serenity”. You will love it there. Anyway, I'm taking the opportunity to share with you some of the photos that I took of the beautiful designs, shapes and architecture in this garden.