Lan Yuan, Dunedin Chinese Garden但尼丁兰园（华人园）

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

New Zealand · Otago Region · Dunedin · At the junction of Cumberland Street and Rattray Street, central Dunedin.

First built

Opened in 2008 · Built by craftsmen from Shanghai (Dunedin's sister city) using Chinese materials; rated a ‘Garden of National Significance’ in February 2011.

Heritage status

Garden of National Significance (2011)

Overview

Lan Yuan (meaning ‘Garden of Enduring Wistfulness’) is the southernmost Chinese-style garden in the southern hemisphere, opened in 2008; its design follows the literati gardens of Jiangnan from the late Ming and early Qing, and it was built by craftsmen from Dunedin's sister city Shanghai using materials sourced in China, fabricated in Shanghai, disassembled, and shipped 13,000 kilometers to Dunedin for assembly. The garden was established to commemorate the history of Otago's Chinese gold-rush immigrants — Dunedin was once the city with the largest concentration of Chinese in New Zealand. In February 2011 it was rated a ‘Garden of National Significance’ by the New Zealand Gardens Trust. It should be noted honestly that Lan Yuan is a commemorative garden and cultural facility, not a temple, and has no permanent shrine or religious ritual within it; it is included here because, together with the Arrowtown and Lawrence sites, it forms part of the public system for presenting the memory of Chinese immigration in New Zealand, and because no continuously operating Daoist temple has yet been found in New Zealand.

Highlights

• The southernmost Chinese-style garden in the southern hemisphere
• Fabricated by Shanghai craftsmen and shipped for assembly
• Rated a Garden of National Significance in 2011
• Not a religious site; a commemorative garden
• No continuously operating Daoist temple has yet been found in New Zealand