Part One: Read to the bottom of this page, then stop until your teacher tells you to turn the page.     Jim Dawson’s dream was about to become a reality: a Chinese garden in Seattle. But first he had to help raise a lot of money.   Click on icon above to download a high resolution file of this page that you can view and print using Adobe Acrobat Reader software. If you do not have this free software, download it from the Adobe site.   Jim Dawson was an architect who had his own architecture and planning firm in Seattle. He had visited China in 1985 and had become fascinated with Chinese gardens. They were completely new to him and completely unlike gardens in the West. Jim learned as much as he could about them.   Over the years, Jim’s interest in Chinese gardens led him to Chongqing, one of Seattle’s Sister Cities. Chonqing, which was located on the Yangtze River, was a major inland port, just like Seattle. Citizens in Seattle and Chongqing had exchanged visits and developed close relationships. During the mid-1980s, a gropu of people in Seattle decided to honor their friends in Chongqing by creating a Chinese garden in Seattle. They would work with designers, craftspeople, and architects from Chongqing to design and build it.   Jim quickly became involved. He helped create a non-profit organization, the Seattle Chinese Garden Society, to help design and build the garden. But the garden couldn’t be built without money. In fact, the six acre garden, which would include pavilions, an education center, and all the other components of a traditional garden in China, would cost millions of dollars. That meant asking people for money. But why would they give money to create another garden in Seattle? Seattle had thousands of beautiful gardens.   That was Jim’s challenge. Jim’s colleagues at the Seattle Chinese Garden Society had asked him to take everything he knew about Chinese gardens and turn it into a simple explanation of what a Chinese garden was and why someone should be interested in donating money to build one in Seattle.   Stop here until your teacher tells you to turn the page.   Click to continue previewing the student version on screen.   Return to Case Studies Archives. Home Journey Log Trade Topics People Profiles Index Ask the Eagle