Memorial built to honor scholar

CHICAGO — A small memorial garden will be built near the spot where missing Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying was last seen in the Midwestern US state of Illinois.

Zhang, who was attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was kidnapped at a bus stop near the campus and missing on June 9 last year.

The garden, to be created out of a 180-square-meter section of grass, is near the bus stop where Zhang waited before getting into a car driven by her suspected kidnapper.

According to local media, the work is expected to be completed next month.

The construction and design will be carried out by Champaign County Master Gardeners at the suggestion of Zhang’s friends and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association.

Miao Guofang, a friend of Zhang’s who helped launch the project, expressed gratitude to the master gardeners and the Illinois Extension outreach program.

“We just proposed the idea: We want to build a memorial garden. They did all the rest,” she said. “This is really nice.”

The garden will feature a path leading to a bench, surrounded by plants and flowers, and is designed to have “beauty and functionality”, according to the proposal from Illinois Extension.

The project will be funded by UIUC.

Though she was at the university for only a few weeks, Zhang was already a “treasured member of the ACES family,” said Kim Kidwell, dean of College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

Brendt Christensen is accused in the kidnapping and killing of Zhang.

His trial is set for April 2 next year. He faces the death penalty if found guilty.