The trip for Botanical garden & shuzhuang garden

Botanical garden

Let’s walk into the botany world. Xiamen botanical garden is located on the Wangshi mountain, in the southeast of Xiamen city. It has an area of 2.27 square km. And it’s an important part of Gulangyu---Wanshi national key scenery spot.

Since the garden was founded in 1960, more than 5,300 species of tropical and subtropical plants have been introduced. They are cultivated in the Conifer garden, Palm garden, Cactus and Succulent garden,  Rose garden, Bamboo garden, Araucaria lawn sites and traditional scenery of Xiamen, such as “Kosinga’s reading place” “morning rings from Tianjie temple” “smiling rocks” “tablets towards the sky” and so on. Botanical garden is not only an important base to research and popularize botany, but also a good place for people to enjoy themselves.

In botanical garden, you can find the classical Chinese gardening features: the flowers, grass, trees, rocks and ponds reflect natural scenes; halls ,verandas, pavilions and bridges blend well with the natural scenery of mountain and rivers.

Attention please, now the garden on my left with lots bamboo is the very Bamboo garden. Bamboos belong to gramineous, mainly distribute in tropical and subtropical regions. There are more than 1,000 species and 66 genera around the world. More than 200 species in 26 genera live in China and centrally distribute in the south of the Yangtze river. Almost 100 species are planted along a crooked path in the garden. An old Chinese saying “one would rather eat without meat than live without bamboo” indicates that bamboo is a kind of traditional ornamental plant in China. Bamboo grows up in one year, it’s also an important economic plant.

And now, the hall facing us is the Rose garden. Rose is an important family, including more than 3,000 species and 124 genera, mainly distributed in the temperate of northern hemisphere. More than 1,000 species, 51 genera distributed in china. Some species suited to local condition are cultivated in the garden.

Oh, have you heard the voice of running water? And look at there, the scenery of charming flowers with the background of music, water surface and lawn. How bewitching it is, isn’t it? Just let’s be silently to enjoy them, to enjoy wind fanning your face with fresh air involving you, to enjoy the paradise nature brings to us. 

Shuzhuang garden covers an area of 3,000 square meters nearly about 1/3 hectare, which’s a unique seaside garden locating in the south of Gulangyu island, which was completed by a millionaire Mr. Li Erjia , who came back from Taiwan to Gulangyu with his family refuging from Japanese colonial domination in Taiwan after the sino-japanese Jiawu war.

What makes it most attractive is its three features of ten gardening architecture characteristics. The first one is changhai(sea-hiding)garden. Entering the garden, you can’t get the view of sea right away owing to a wall keeping from. Once rounding this wall, you get the sight of hai kuo tiang kong(vast sea and boundless sky). An Swiss garden architecture expert, who had a visit of shuzhuang garden, said that there is only lake-hiding in Switzerland but sea-hiding in Xiamen which is fascinating.  The second one is its background sight utilizing. The hill slope, the scattered rocks in the sea, the next beach and fast-distance sight of sun-light rock and circle sights, which  are original background sights, are taken as its garden sights. Meanwhile the garden also becomes a decoration of the sea while its perimeter expands with the help of the sea. It is an exquisite masterpiece of workmanship. It representative building-44 zigzag bridge is over sea waters, so one feels as if walked on waves at high tide hour. The 44 zigzag bridge got its name from the year of his owner age which Mr Lin ErJia was 44 years old.