smartie2000
Well-Known Member
Some photos of my short trip to China in the late spring of 2009. This was my first time going to Asia! I missed meeting Sam Tsui from Orchid Inn., so that I can go on this trip!
I have 2000 photos on my computer, so this is only a biased small collection of photos. Finally I remembered to share them here. We went to many cities and many places. China is a vast and culturally diverse country. We started north in Beijing and headed south all the way down to Guangdong and Hong Kong
The Great Wall of China. This at the Juyong Pass, which I later found out that it was the steepest slope of the Great Wall. I think I nearly gave myself a heat stroke because I went up on a time limited (since we were with a tour bus) and did not realize how steep it was. Once you're up, you’re stuck...I had to run up and down and was still late...40mins for so many uneven steps! I should have gone on the other less steep end which I photographed from my view on the higher end.
We did go to Beijing and Nanjing, which I didn’t show photos of. Then we went to Wuxi. In Wuxi there is a beautiful garden called Jichang Garden (寄畅园). I think this is one of my favorite gardens, and the emperor Qianlong visited several times.
I was told that that hills in this garden were rearranged in this garden so that the pagoda in the background could be viewed!
In this pond grows "yellow lotus" plants, which do not grow anywhere else. (to me scientifically they are not lotus)
We went to several other cities(Shanghai, Suzhou, etc.) . Here are photos from West Lake in Hangzhou.
Jumping ahead again we also travelled to Guangdong (Canton) province. The only province where I can speak the native language, Cantonese. Guangdong feels like home except it is far more tropical in this province, and there are probably many native orchids, but that was not the purpose of this trip.
We were visiting the villiages and we dropped by Zhaoqing, where the Seven Star Crags (七星岩) are. There were many buddhist statues in this park, as well as animals. Below are lotus growing inside of the Star lake. This park has a religious theme to it.
From there we visited Hong Kong and Macau. Here is a view of Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Isaland near Hong Kong. Big Buddha!
Then we travelled back to Guangzhou, where the food is the best. They have all sorts of food, even Boston Pizza Chinese style! We did lots of relaxing, shopping and ate lots of food. Guangzhou is home to gardens as well that are more tropical, and also many art forms.
We visited Guangdong Folk Arts Museum. Inside are many intricate ivory carvings, wood carvings, vases, etc.
Outside they display Penjing trees. Chinese has a long history of Penjing cultivation, from which Bonsai later developed in Japan. In a way it is not righteous that Bonsai is the term used in all western societies, since most of the trees are imported from China. My hypothesis is that the Japanese name was adopted due to previous Chinese supresssion and discrimination. Below is a Fukien Tea Penjing and a Ficus tree still in the training.
At the Guangzhou airport they display many high quality trees on the international side of the airport for the foreigners to view. As a horticulturalist and artist I admire in these trees.
Haha, we tried to party lots in China as well, every night and in almost every city. They serve beer at lunch and at dinner.
My photos are a biased to traditional Chinese art, rather than the modern buildings...
One of the differences that I see between the Japanese gardens that Tom photographed and the Chinese ones is that the Japanese tend to prune all their trees into geometric shapes. The Chinese allow their trees to grow more naturally. This is not to say that little thought was put into creating and maintaining them. They did put much thought into creating the correct angles, depth and views that are aesthetically pleasing. In addition I suspect that the chinese gardens are much larger. Much of the paths and rockery (there are many huge scholarly artistic rocks/boulders) I did not post photos of. Many of the buildings inside display caligraphy, traditional furniture and other arts.
I have 2000 photos on my computer, so this is only a biased small collection of photos. Finally I remembered to share them here. We went to many cities and many places. China is a vast and culturally diverse country. We started north in Beijing and headed south all the way down to Guangdong and Hong Kong
The Great Wall of China. This at the Juyong Pass, which I later found out that it was the steepest slope of the Great Wall. I think I nearly gave myself a heat stroke because I went up on a time limited (since we were with a tour bus) and did not realize how steep it was. Once you're up, you’re stuck...I had to run up and down and was still late...40mins for so many uneven steps! I should have gone on the other less steep end which I photographed from my view on the higher end.
We did go to Beijing and Nanjing, which I didn’t show photos of. Then we went to Wuxi. In Wuxi there is a beautiful garden called Jichang Garden (寄畅园). I think this is one of my favorite gardens, and the emperor Qianlong visited several times.
I was told that that hills in this garden were rearranged in this garden so that the pagoda in the background could be viewed!
In this pond grows "yellow lotus" plants, which do not grow anywhere else. (to me scientifically they are not lotus)
We went to several other cities(Shanghai, Suzhou, etc.) . Here are photos from West Lake in Hangzhou.
Jumping ahead again we also travelled to Guangdong (Canton) province. The only province where I can speak the native language, Cantonese. Guangdong feels like home except it is far more tropical in this province, and there are probably many native orchids, but that was not the purpose of this trip.
We were visiting the villiages and we dropped by Zhaoqing, where the Seven Star Crags (七星岩) are. There were many buddhist statues in this park, as well as animals. Below are lotus growing inside of the Star lake. This park has a religious theme to it.
From there we visited Hong Kong and Macau. Here is a view of Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Isaland near Hong Kong. Big Buddha!
Then we travelled back to Guangzhou, where the food is the best. They have all sorts of food, even Boston Pizza Chinese style! We did lots of relaxing, shopping and ate lots of food. Guangzhou is home to gardens as well that are more tropical, and also many art forms.
We visited Guangdong Folk Arts Museum. Inside are many intricate ivory carvings, wood carvings, vases, etc.
Outside they display Penjing trees. Chinese has a long history of Penjing cultivation, from which Bonsai later developed in Japan. In a way it is not righteous that Bonsai is the term used in all western societies, since most of the trees are imported from China. My hypothesis is that the Japanese name was adopted due to previous Chinese supresssion and discrimination. Below is a Fukien Tea Penjing and a Ficus tree still in the training.
At the Guangzhou airport they display many high quality trees on the international side of the airport for the foreigners to view. As a horticulturalist and artist I admire in these trees.
Haha, we tried to party lots in China as well, every night and in almost every city. They serve beer at lunch and at dinner.
My photos are a biased to traditional Chinese art, rather than the modern buildings...One of the differences that I see between the Japanese gardens that Tom photographed and the Chinese ones is that the Japanese tend to prune all their trees into geometric shapes. The Chinese allow their trees to grow more naturally. This is not to say that little thought was put into creating and maintaining them. They did put much thought into creating the correct angles, depth and views that are aesthetically pleasing. In addition I suspect that the chinese gardens are much larger. Much of the paths and rockery (there are many huge scholarly artistic rocks/boulders) I did not post photos of. Many of the buildings inside display caligraphy, traditional furniture and other arts.
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