Discover Friendship Park

Two lions guard the entrance to the Panamanian Chinese Friendship Park . One has his paw on a chest while the other protects a puppy. The beasts also protect the peace and quiet in the city.

Last year it celebrated 20 years since its foundation, when the then president of the Republic of China - or Taiwan -, Lee Teng-Hui , came to Panama tfor its inauguration.

At the end of the corridor, after passing the fountain of fortune, appears the kiosk of friendship displaying two busts: Manuel Amador Guerrero , Panama, and the Sun Yat Sen , father of the Chinese identity and who gives his name to the school which the park belongs to.

And then, silence. The park is on a small street that  borns  from La Amistad Avenue and ends on the North corridor and then backs on Villa de las Fuentes. The area  smells like wet earth.  You can hear the birds that play among the trees. There are  panama, guásimo, colorada, balsa, guachapalí, mamoncillo, espavé, ficus and several more trees..  At the pond in the middle of the park, a statue of a Buddhist goddess (Kwan Yin) seems to watch over everything, while around her,  hummingbirds fly over the flowers of the long-lived bridge.

"Every day there are between 30 and 40 people," says Teo Sanjur , one of the people in charge of caring for the park. "They come to walk, to have lunch, to think.

At one end of the three-hectare park there are stairs that go up to a place that hides behind the trees. This is the kiosk of meditation, a small circular space whose ceiling contains a sculpture of a dragon.   Behind the kiosk there is a stone path that connects to the whole park.  Enjoy the small oriental details hidden among the garden of the park.

Outside the park there is a line of cars that extends almost to the roundabout at the entrance of Clayton. Heat emanates from the engines contrasting with the breeze and the singing of the birds .You have now entered the concrete jungle. .