Suzhou garden near completion in California

Thousands of kilometers from China, a version of the Suzhou scholars' garden, known for its seamless integration of natural landscape with pavilions and pagodas, is being built at the Huntington, a historical institution nestled in Southern California's San Gabriel Valley.

The final construction phase of Liu Fang Yuan (Garden of Flowing Fragrance) is on track for completion in May 2020, officials at The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens announced on Tuesday.

Phillip E. Bloom, who is the June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies at the Huntington, told an audience of donors, library staff and journalists that the idea for the garden took shape as early as the late 1980s.