Things really got rolling about 45 minutes into this afternoon’s community welcome party for the visiting artisans at the Seattle Chinese Garden, when lion dancers paraded around the grounds – our video shows a small part of the procession. At one point along the route, the artisans stood side by side to watch:

They and visitors heard from two presidents – Jon Geiger of the Seattle Chinese Garden Society (purple shirt) and new South Seattle Community College president Gary Oertli, both of whom kept their speeches short, saying they wanted visitors to spend their time touring the site instead:

Pulling back from that scene – the artisans were to the presidents’ left:

Their work has been focused on the Knowing the Spring Courtyard, the first major feature of the Seattle Chinese Garden to be built – you can see into it, looking over the dancers’ shoulders – that’s not a photo or painting, but instead a view into the future courtyard:

The project itself (explained here), in fact, is for the future as well as the present – a dream becoming reality, and a building of understanding across the miles, between the cultures –

If you missed this afternoon’s party, watch the Seattle Chinese Garden website for word of tours and other opportunities to visit. Garden volunteers also are keeping a blog-format website with stories of what’s happening at the site, which is on the far north end of the SSCC campus atop Puget Ridge.