Cultural Contrasts

The Chinese Gardens of Friendship are located at Darling Harbour and have been there since 1988. They celebrate Sydney’s relationship with the city of Guangzhou in China. They are promoted as a serene escape from the hustle and bustle of the busy city. We set out this morning to visit the gardens, wandering through neighbouring Chinatown on the way.

This guy did not look too impressed to be stuck in a tank in the front window of a Chinese restaurant waiting to be somebodies lunch... 

This very impressive mural was on a building we saw walking from Chinatown to the gardens:

The gardens were terrific. Serene, yes, attractive, yes, relaxing, yes. There was an activity for the children where they had to locate 12 hidden animals (the Chinese zodiac animals). We downloaded an app and each time they found one they had to answer a question and the app would reveal a tile in a puzzle. They had a great time doing this and found all of them, navigating their way around using maps and clues.

There were countless water dragons in the gardens along with koi carp in the ornamental lake. Colourful dragon flies were also a frequent observation. After completing the treasure hunt, the kids created a ‘brick’ that was then put up as part of the friendship wall.

We had a relaxing second wander around the gardens taking in all the experiences. The bonsais, the waterfalls, animals and various pavilions. 

We decided to walk back to the apartment for lunch today, have a bit of down time and then head out on another adventure later in the day. To contrast our Chinese cultural experience we decided to head to Manly for some more beach culture!

We walked to Circular Quay, via Hyde Park. 

From there we scanned our Opal cards and hopped on board the Manly Ferry. The ferries are a great way to see Sydney from the water and we enjoyed the journey as much as the destination this afternoon.

Once in Manly we walked through The Corso to the beach where we hung out for an hour or so, the kids again playing and getting a little damp. J set off to find some fish n chips to enjoy in this lovely location. But, it appears that F&C in Manly are a luxury item just for the chosen few. The prices were unbelievable… how about $18 for one piece of fish… but we could have got the family VALUE pack for $75! As much as we were looking forward to this, we could not bring ourselves, on principle to part with that much money for fish and chips! 

So we ended up at Nandos and KFC… not quite the same but we enjoyed eating it back near the ferry jetty. Manly was certainly a busy place this evening. 

As we ate, some volunteer rangers put up a sign and cleared part of the beach… apparently there are a pair of little penguins with a nest under the busy, noisy jetty! They come back in to their nest each evening. So we hung around and watched. We saw one come in, but no sign of the other.

We wanted to get the ferry back about 8pm so we could experience the city lights, so we left without seeing the second penguin. We hoped he / she made it back okay!

The ferry back was on one of Sydney’s newest ones and it was rather nice. Even nicer was the fact that we cruised into an orange sunset which was amazing, with the city as a back drop.

Once off the ferry we walked around to the opera house and enjoyed the atmosphere of it all! There were hundreds of other people out and about enjoying it with us! 

By the time we caught the train back to the apartment we were all exhausted – the Chinese Gardens seemed like ages ago. Hard to believe they were just this morning!