Chinagarten Zürich

This guide to the Chinagarten in Zurich starts with the roof over your head: around 150,000 hand-fired ceramic tiles, laid by craftsmen from Zurich's sister city Kunming in 1993 as thanks for help modernizing its water supply. It follows what happened when a roofing method built for southern China met Zurich's freeze-and-thaw winters, and why tiles shipped in from Beijing kept working loose. The garden's design is built around pine, bamboo and plum blossom, the three friends of winter chosen because they endure the cold. Look up at the pavilion roofs as you walk beneath them.