On an overcast day in downtown Vancouver with the summer quickly fading, tourists from various parts of the world wander around the city' s Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden absorbing the beauty of this miniature oasis in the heart of Chinatown.

The garden, and the adjoining park, owned by the city and operated as a not-for-profit society, is currently celebrating its 25th year after having been built to coincide with Vancouver' s hosting of the 1986 World Expo. Most importantly, it honors Dr. Sun, who visited Vancouver on three occasions to raise support and funding from overseas Chinese in his fight to overthrow the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

At the time of its creation, the park was a major exercise in international cooperation as it involved the participation of multi-levels of government in the Canada and China national governments, the province of British Columbia and the city of Vancouver, which donated the use of the land, a former industrial site.

Funding for the 5.3-million-Canadian-dollar garden came from the private and public sectors, companies, ordinary citizens, as well as the Chinese government.

Following much negotiations, 52 master craftsmen from Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, in addition to numerous containers of hand-fired roof tiles, carved woodwork, lattice windows, giant limestone rock and courtyard pebbles, were brought to Vancouver to create the first classical Chinese garden outside of China.

Working with their Canadian counterparts using the building techniques of the original Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) gardens, the craftsmen worked diligently, using no nails, screws or glue, and completing the job April 24, 1986, eight days prior to the Vancouver Expo opening.

"The Chinese community was very, very pleased and very proud to be a sponsor of something so significant in the heart of our community. They worked hard to raise funds, as well as to support the effort that was here," said community activist Shirley Chen, who was working as the City of Vancouver's chief of staff when the gardens were being built.

"At the same time, the Chinese community was raising funds to build the Chinese Cultural Center, so it was a significant effort to take this whole city block, except for that one office building on the corner, and make it ours, to reclaim it for the community."

Inside the garden's white walls, the Daoist philosophy of yin and yang is perfectly executed as natural light streams in through open-air windows, no two the same, while the covered walkway winds through a setting of weathered rocks, bamboo and miniature rhododendrum, and pools of jade-green water, home to lilies, brightly-colored koi and frogs, while birds overhead take in the peaceful setting.

It is this beauty that draws in between 90,000 and 100,000 visitors annually to the garden, many of the school children learning about Chinese culture for the first time, as well as locals as tourists alike. Kathy Gibler, the garden' s executive director, said surprisingly few of the visitors are Chinese mainlanders, a growing tourism force since China granted Canada Approved Destination Status last year.

"We don' t get enough them. When I ask the question, what' s often said to me is, 'we' ve got those in China,'" she said. "What we do find though is when Chinese people who have immigrated here, after the first couple of years when they are just trying to learn how to survive in the society, actually then love coming here because they are then reconnecting to the culture that they really love."

Of the visitors taking in the garden Friday, most of them middle-aged western tourists, few had knowledge of who Dr. Sun was, or of his round-the-world travels drumming up support and funding to overthrow the imperial Qing rulers.

"No, I don' t know of Dr. Sun. But now that I've been to this garden, it has piqued my interest to find out who he was," said English tourist Ian Oakley. "But the garden is very beautiful. It' s photographic for me. It' s every window you look through there' s a totally different picture and I like that. And as the sky changes and the light changes, everything changes within it.

"Never heard of him before," said Slovakian visitor Darina Tyrpakova, of the garden' s namesake. "These gardens are wonderful for tourists. It' s a great attraction, I love it here. I like the calmness I get here. I like that it reminds of the Ming Dynasty as I learned."

As Chinese history is seldom taught in Canadian schools, Thomas Robson, a volunteer tour guide at the garden, wasn' t surprised that few people knew of Sun who last visited Vancouver in 1911.

"No, it (knowledge of Chinese history among westerners) is terrifically limited for the most part. It' s cursory at best," said the retired chef who previously worked in Singapore.

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