The Tenkaen, literally Flower Garden of Heaven (but also known as China Park of Heaven), was probably the biggest location *Michael* and I visited on our *haikyo trip to Hokkaido*. Opened in 1992 and closed in 1999 this deserted China themed park now is longer abandoned than it was in business – and it showed…
Japan and China have a long common history full of complications – and the recent election of the Japanese House of Representatives most likely won’t change the situation, especially regarding the Senkaku Islands. Nevertheless Japanese people seem to love themed parks that are not necessarily theme parks. Unlike famous theme parks like Disneyland or Universal Studios the dozens of themed parks all over Japan don’t have fast and expensive rides. They really are just themed parks that offer a more or less authentic look at the theme they chose – usually other countries like Germany (Doitsu no Mura Kronenberg), Spain (Spain Mura / Parque Espana), the Netherlands (Huis Ten Bosch) or New Zealand (Tohoku New Zealand Mura). Most of them were build during the real estate bubble in the late 1980s/90s and a lot of them were already closed (like the *Hiroshima New Zealand Farm* and the *Yamaguchi New Zealand Village*) or even leveled.
The Tenkaen is not much different in that regard. Opened in 1992 as one of four big theme(d) parks in Noboribetsu (the other being the Noboribetsu Bear Park (opened in 1958), the Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe (opened in 1990), and the Noboribetsu Date Jidaimura – a Edo era themed park opened in 1992), the Tenkaen was modeled after a garden court from the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1912) and in addition included a 5-storey pagoda with a height of 40 meters and a bell donated by China to commemorate 20 years of rather friendly diplomatic relations. Sadly the Tenkaen didn’t last nearly as long, probably due the steep entrance fee of 1,900 Yen (1,100 Yen for senior citizens and elementary school students). In the first business year (1992/1993) only 270,000 people visited the 40,000 square meter site – and it went only downhill from there. In 1995 the attendance numbers were down to half in comparison to the first record year and in 1998 the opening days were reduced and a winter closing was introduced – on October 31st 1999, only seven and a half years after the grand opening, the Tenkaen was closed for good and now is one of the most famous abandoned places in Hokkaido.
Michael and I arrived at a reasonable time in the morning at the Tenkaen, expecting a rather long day of shooting there, but we had no idea what the layout of the location would really be since this China themed park is located in a rural area where even GoogleMaps isn’t much of a help. The weather was sunny, but nevertheless strangely gloomy, offering lighting conditions I have never seen before at an abandoned place. The whole area was dusted with a thin layer of snow, so we chose our ways carefully not to leave to many visible footprints. After we spent about half an hour at the garden palace area the sun began hiding behind some clouds and we were hit by a snowstorm. The atmosphere changed completely and the photos we took looked like they were taken at a different day. The storm lasted for about half an hour and ended abruptly when the sun came back with a vengeance, melting the freshly fallen snow along with the one we found at our arrival – so much for walking carefully not to leave footprint.
But that wasn’t the last time the weather would change. It seemed like the Tenkaen wanted to live up to its name – there weren’t a lot of flowers, but heaven changed about every 30 minutes, switching between gorgeous sunlight and almost blizzard like snowstorms. Which was great for us *haikyoists*, because whatever part of the Tenkaen we explored, we always had a variety of weather conditions to take pictures of. Altogether we spent 4.5 hours at the Tenkaen, and if it wouldn’t have been for a long list of other locations to be visited on the same day (and the ice cold wind, especially on the higher floors of the pagoda!) we probably would have stayed much longer…
Personally I loved the Tenkaen – it was my kind of abandoned place: in the middle of nowhere, open space, nice weather, interesting location, not that much vandalism, lots of natural decay, unique theme. The two major streets with dozens of cars passing by were a little bit annoying at times, especially when exploring the floors of the pagoda, but overall it was a great experience, not least because of the constantly changing weather conditions. I would love to come back one day in a warmer season of the year, to see some more green and maybe to take some night shots!
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Abandoned Kansai 
This is a cool explore! And you got a much more interesting weather than I did (though mine was nice and warm). But on the contrary of you, I think there was a lot of vandalism, especially inside the buildings. Because of that, I only stayed only one hour and a half, then left. Would love to visit it again by night though, it’s a good idea!
Thanks a lot! The buildings were mostly empty anyway, so I didn’t spent much time inside… But the architecture was gorgeous and I am sure it would be easy to spend another four hours there under the right conditions. Like constantly changing weather, which was truly a blessing!
Great writeup and well-researched history! I thoroughly enjoyed Tenkaen myself, and a big part of that was undoubtedly the crazy weather conditions and company I had. A very different experience to my final day of exploration alone – almost a complete contrast in fact – but special because of that.
This place was magical for me. I don’t think I’ll ever forget standing on that balcony in the old temple at the back of the complex watching the snow coming down so peacefully. Night shots of this place would definitely be in order!
Thanks man – I’m sure you still would be on that balcony if I wouldn’t have dragged you away from there! 😉
It was such a great experience and I’d go back any time. Maybe in spring, although spring sounds almost too easy…
I’m looking forward to the report about your final day of exploration! I know the story, but I am very eager to see some photos.
How interesting! For those of us who will probably never be able to visit, thanks for taking us there through your words and photos.
Amazing photos. Great find. This is fascinating and well written.
Too bad that they closed. It looked very authentic and am sure they spent a good amount of money to build.
Reblogged this on Lost in Excursion and commented:
I love exploring old, abandoned places as much as the next person, but there’s not a lot here in Baguio, Philippines. My dream is to see Pripyat, the town that was abandoned following the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in Ukraine. There’s a lot that went on there and I feel attracted to its eerie ruins.
Excellent photos and write up, I am a little envious (OK fine, a lot). As someone who has a snowflake’s chance in a fire of getting from here to there to explore this post is a gift.
Thanks a lot, much appreciated! Sometimes I’m surprised what kind of places I find and what kind of adventures I experience when exploring them.
A very interesting report – thanks for sharing.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
This is a very well put together blog post. A good read.
Thank you so much, glad you liked it! (I love your blog BTW, really interesting articles!)
I like this idea of photographing abandoned places, really intresting !
Thanks! It’s becoming more and more popular worldwide recently, but not a lot of English speaking people do it in Japan.
Beautiful and interesting.
Thank you very much.
I am on the run so didnt get to finish any of ur articles yet but I get a feeling I’m gonna love them. You have a very interesting blog. I will definitely come back. I just can’t seem to find the ‘follow’ button on your site tho. Maybe this is iPhone’s problem
Since you want to visit Chernobyl yourself I am sure you’ll find a lot of abandoned places here that you will love – most of them you most likely haven’t heard of yet. Have fun exploring Abandoned Kansai! (Oh, and there is a Follow button, must be indeed a iPhone problem. Or you can follow via Facebook and / or Youtube…)
Really beautiful pictures
Thanks a lot!
thanks
Wow! Those pictures are wonderful! Even if the place is abandoned, it still have is magnificence, that’s incredible!
And it’s in great condition considering that it was abandoned 13 years ago. Thanks for stopping by!
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Thanks!
You are very welcome! Happy New Year t you and yours
Very interesting information and great photos! Thanks for sharing and thank you for stopping by Travel Oops and liking the post about yard duty in Australia! Steph
interesting information and amazing pics 😉
Beautiful photos!
Thanks a lot – it’s actually one of my favorite sets.
Thank you for stopping by my blog 🙂 Your images are beautiful, thank you for sharing.
Very interesting post – lovely photos and fascinating information, and I really liked the videos.
🙂
~Lyann
Thanks a lot – Tenkaen turned out to be one of the most popular articles. I guess the changing weather helped a lot…
It’s interesting to see the similarities between the Chinese and Japanese architecture.
Japan has a long tradition of absorbing elements from other cultures. Architecture, food, religion, clothing, …
Beautiful images and words – such a shame that such a wonderful place has been allowed to fall into such disrepair. But a beautiful location for shooting indeed! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks a lot for your kind words! I really hope I’ll be able to go back to the Tenkaen one day, it was a truly pleasant exploration…
Wow these photos are really cool! Some of these colors are amazing! Thank you for visiting my blog 🙂
Thanks a lot – Tenkaen was a colorful place and I found some camera settings that brought them out perfectly. I don’t do any enhancing post-production, so all those photos are basically straight out of the camera.
I find abandoned places very interesting, full of mystery and intrigue. I haven’t been able to actually visit any in Russia but shared about them on my blog. Even whole abandoned cities. It’s weird. Thanks enjoyed reading.
Thanks for stopping by! There are many amazing abandoned places in Russia, I just don’t have the time to travel much, so I focus on the locations that are in Japan… 🙂
I have this dream to travel the world and visit all the places that I get to visit in blogs like yours. Out of curiosity was it the economy that caused a lot of these places to become abandoned or the migration of peoples to the big city?
Be careful what you wish for, half of those places are more work than fun to visit. Okay… maybe a quarter… or 10%… Tenkaen was awesome though! 🙂
Japan’s population is decreasing since 2007, so IMHO the three most important reasons that places are abandoned in Japan are the economy in general, more people dying than being born and the continuing migration to bigger cities – and by bigger cities I mean any city offering tertiary education.
So are you saying that the Japanese culture is dying?
I wouldn’t say that the culture is dying, but the population is – and with that comes an increasing amount of abandoned building.
such a shame to see it abandoned like this.
It looks like it has been demolished and replaced by solar panels. A shame to lose an abandoned theme park, but at least the area is being used for something good!
Yeah, it’s a real loss for urbex in Japan. I’ve mentioned it 1.5 years ago in this article: https://abandonedkansai.com/2020/01/14/you-are-too-late-sucker/