A garden path to friendship

The Duisburg Zoo, built in 1934, is among the largest zoological gardens in Germany. Since the Wuhan Zoo was established in 1985, it has been drawing on the experience of its Duisburg counterpart.

Retired carpenter Jiang Donghua was in the Chinese team of 10 people, comprising carpenters, construction workers, a painter, a design engineer, an interpreter and managers, that went to Duisburg 35 years ago to put the garden together.

"They're making purlins with cedar this time. Hopefully the wood can last for a century. We used spruce back then because it was difficult to purchase cedar," Jiang recalls.

The Chinese team worked with the Germans for around three months there. The daily workload was tough, due to the duration of visas. Back in Wuhan, it had taken over a year to build the prototype of the garden. They would arrive at the construction site at 7 am and finish work by 5 or 6 pm, followed by a meeting to discuss the progress.

Jiang says they were asked by local journalists whether they volunteered to work overtime as the law ruled that the upper limit of weekly working time was 35 hours, and they answered yes, because they had to finish the construction in time "for the sake of the two countries' friendship".

The following day, the Chinese team was happy to read in newspapers that their work had been recognized.