Sister gardens eye greater cultural teamwork

The Master of Nets Garden in Jiangsu province's Suzhou city is one of the state-of-the art classical gardens in the country, and it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage.

The garden signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday with its sister garden in the United States — the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon — pledging more joint efforts in deepening cultural friendship, cooperation and exchanges.

The Lan Su Chinese Garden, named after Portland and Suzhou, embraced its completion and opening in 2000.

It has long been a symbol of the friendship between Suzhou and Portland and amity between the two nations, and also offers a great glimpse into Chinese culture for visitors in the US.

As early as 2001, the two gardens formed their sisterhood, kicking off their cultural exchanges.

They signed the latest pact as this year marks the 35th anniversary of the sisterhood between the two cities.

According to the pact, the two gardens will further their regular communication and information sharing, and deepen their cooperation in the areas of training and research, tourism resources, architecture preservation, botanical cultivation and cultural promotion.

Cao Guangshu, director of Suzhou's garden and greening administration, said the deepening cooperation between the two gardens "will bear more fruit of friendly exchanges".

Suzhou also looks to strengthen two-way exchanges of garden culture with Portland and other cities in Oregon, building bridges of understanding and friendship between Chinese and American people through culture and art, he added.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn