In 1996, a garden in a box arrived at Missouri Botanical Garden--stones from lake bottoms and carved, polished marble, timbers and tiles, along with five architects from Nanjing (St. Louis sister city). These pieces had been assembled, then packed for St. Louis, where they were reassembled.

This was not a large scale construction kit, however. These architects trained our own people to use materials from our locality to form the special designs in the walk.

Carved in stone?In addition to Mobot's staff and volunteers, other local craftsmen were called to add their experise. The entrance to the garden is the traditional Moon Gate, along with a stone with a wecome greeting. I watched in fascination as Chinese characters appeared week by week, carved by a local momument maker. I was excitedly anticipating the completion of the carving, then one morning I came face to face with an interesting sight (mouse over picture).

Yes, all the text (English and Chinese) had been ground flat! Sort of gives the expression "carved in stone" a new meaning!

Stay tuned for more of the story...