Sister city offers Taupo a Chinese garden

Taupo’s newest sister city Suzhou has offered to build a Chinese Garden in the Taupo town centre as a starting point for future relationships between the two towns.

Suzhou, which became a sister-city for Taupo in February, has provided a proposed design for a 5000m2 walled garden and offered to build it at at no captial cost to the ratepayers subject to Taupo District Council providing the land.

Councillors today agreed unanimously to accept the generous offer in principle and a working group will now begin investigating the most appropriate location.

A spokesperson for Suzhou says the garden needs to be located in or close to the Taupo town centre and must be northfacing. The size of the proposed garden can be scaled down in proportion to the land available.

Councillor Kathryn Uvhagen is excited at the concept of such a garden being establised in Taupo. “The Chinese gardens in Christchurch and Singapore are beautiful and great assets to the cities.

There are enormous economic, social and cultural benefits to be gained by Taupo from having a similar garden here. It will also be an outstanding visitor attraction,” she says.

Mayor Rick Cooper says given that tourism is one of the pillars of the Taupo economy, the opportunity to forge stronger ties with China makes good economic and strategic sense. “We have such a wonderful district, the more people that appreciate it the better and sister-city relationships allow us to promote Taupo on a more personal level,” he says.

Several possible locations for the garden will be considered including Tongariro Domain, Nukuhau Boat Reserve, Gascoigne Reserve and Northcroft Reserve.

The Council will consider all locations, taking into account community feedback and relevant legislation. The Council hopes to begin public consultation on the options in May.