Xu Zhimo Garden unveiled at King’s College Cambridge

The first Chinese-style garden commemorating a Chinese poet was unveiled at King’s College Cambridge on Friday.

The garden is named after Xu Zhimo, a famous Chinese poet who attended King’s 100 years ago, and is located next to the Xu Zhimo Memorial Stone, which was placed on the grounds in 2008.

The Xu Zhimo Garden was designed by Steven Coghill, the senior horticulturist of King’s College. The main path, inscribed with the second and third verses of Xu’s A Second Farewell to Cambridge, guides visitors through the garden, ending at the Crescent Moon Bench – a memorial to the Crescent Moon Society, a Chinese literary society Xu founded in 1923.

According to Coghill, the circular path in the middle of the garden is a symbol of the winding journey Xu’s life took – a journey built on his roots in China and his experiences in the West.

The site is a semi-natural meadow of grassland and trees with a naturalistic garden that fits seamlessly into the meadow like a bowled amphitheater. Plants in the garden are those that the poet would have encountered during his life, and mainly consist of plants from his home in Haining, Zhejiang Province, that can prosper in Britain’s climate.

Visitors to the garden can experience for themselves the place where Xu often liked to write poetry and have a chance to escape from the world through contemplation and meditation.

The opening ceremony of the garden was part of the fourth annual Xu Zhimo Poetry and Art Festival. The theme of this year’s festival was “Garden & Birds.” Around 200 renowned poets, writers, and scholars from around the world gathered to read poetry and exchange ideas on the bank of the River Cam, the place where famous Chinese poet Xu Zhimo wrote his Second Farewell to Cambridge.