# Photos from China



## smartie2000 (Mar 17, 2010)

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.


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## emydura (Mar 17, 2010)

Thanks for the great photos Fren. I'd love to go China myself. There was a 6 part BBC documentary showed here recently called "Wild China". Easily the best documentary I have seen. I had not realised how beautiful and diverse the scenery was in China. 

I have been to the big Budhha in Hong Kong as well. I noticed the air quality is a bit hazy. Unfortunately Asia is so much like that. Even in Nepal the air quality is terrible away from the high altitudes. Makes it hard to take nice crisp scenic photos. Still your Great Wall photo is one of the clearest I have seen.

David


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## toddybear (Mar 17, 2010)

Looks like a great trip. With China's population I would have expected the places to be crowded with people but people appear rather scanty...you must have taken pics in early morning or the off-season (?)


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## Hera (Mar 17, 2010)

Thanks for sharing your photos. I always enjoy traveling vicariously with everyone. China looks beautiful.


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## Clark (Mar 17, 2010)

Very nice trip!


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## etex (Mar 17, 2010)

Thank you for the photos and a glimpse of a magnificant country! You take great pictures!!


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## NYEric (Mar 17, 2010)

Thanx for sharing.


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## smartie2000 (Mar 17, 2010)

emydura said:


> Thanks for the great photos Fren. I'd love to go China myself. There was a 6 part BBC documentary showed here recently called "Wild China". Easily the best documentary I have seen. I had not realised how beautiful and diverse the scenery was in China.


Yes! I want to go to the mountains next. The Yellow Mountains will be on my list.



emydura said:


> I have been to the big Budhha in Hong Kong as well. I noticed the air quality is a bit hazy. Unfortunately Asia is so much like that. Even in Nepal the air quality is terrible away from the high altitudes. Makes it hard to take nice crisp scenic photos. Still your Great Wall photo is one of the clearest I have seen.
> 
> David



Interesting, at Big Buddha, Hong Kong and Guangzhou (southern areas), there were many blue skies. I have photos of buddha on the side view, showing the sky better, but I wanted to post picture a front view shot.
But higher north, like in Beijing etc., I cannot say the same. I think that hot weather and humidity could have an effect on the appearance of the sky still. I went in the April so it didn't get too hot yet (that is still 30C!)
but much of the photos showing a white background, is because the sky is all foggy, either moisture or pollution. I hope more moisture... they say that foreigners misjudge it as pollution (I do believe a part of it is pollution but not all, however I bet Los Angeles or NYC is just as bad). By the end of the trip, at the Beijing airport, the sky was completely clear... the "pollution" suddenly disappeared? I joked actually that I finally saw blue skies...we wanted nice backdrops for our photos in the other cities! (too bad that was the end of the trip)

In China they care much about how their province looks. They hire many workers cleaning and gardening. Guangdong (and Hong Kong) is the only province where the people follow the street rules and are polite. Up north it is a crazy rush of people, traffic is abnormal and the mannerism is different. Be careful when crossing the road...haha my mom says that people are more civilized down south. That is why this province is like Canada. 



toddybear said:


> Looks like a great trip. With China's population I would have expected the places to be crowded with people but people appear rather scanty...you must have taken pics in early morning or the off-season (?)


there were lots of people, depending where you were. I was scared of getting lost because "everyone looked the same". I think I missed the crowd on the Great Wall...but those masses are tourists. These gardens are fairly quiet, which is a good thing, I believe they require a fair to go in. These historical areas shouldn't be covered with people. I think for a historical site, Forbidden City and Summer Palace were the most crowded.


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## JeanLux (Mar 17, 2010)

Great pics!!!! Thanks, and some cool bonsai!!! Jean


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## Lanmark (Mar 17, 2010)

Superb! Thanks for sharing. I wish I could see all of your photos from this trip. I'm happy for you to have been able to visit China and hope you will be able to visit again. It is a beautiful, amazing and fascinating place. I have been only to Hong Kong as an adult but was in Shanghai briefly when I was a very small child.


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## parvi_17 (Mar 17, 2010)

Thanks for sharing these photos Fren! It is one of my dreams to visit China, and I will someday when I have the time and money. To me China is probably the most fascinating place on Earth, and one of the most beautiful.

So what are those yellow "lotus"? Do you know the genus?


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## smartie2000 (Mar 17, 2010)

Here's the close up of the "yellow lotus". My photo was crappy because they were a distance away, and I canot use macro on my camera at these distances. I'm not sure which genus it belongs into, perhaps Nymphoides? But there are no Nymphoides with flowers that look like this that I can find.

It in the family Nymphaeaceae? Its leaves certainly look like Nymphaeaceae, as well as its numerous anthers. I wish we could see the gynoecium better. I think it is Nymphaeaceae. 





Edit: I figured it out. It is Nuphar! 
neat little golden yellow flowers


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## Kavanaru (Mar 17, 2010)

smartie2000 said:


> Here's the close up of the "yellow lotus". My photo was crappy because they were a distance away, and I canot use macro on my camera at these distances. I'm not sure which genus it belongs into, perhaps Nymphoides? But there are no Nymphoides with flowers that look like this that I can find.
> 
> Or is it in the genus Nymphaeaceae? Its leaves certainly look like Nymphaeaceae, as well as its numerous anthers. I wish we could see the gynoecium better. I think it is Nymphaeaceae.



almost 100% it is Nuphar sp. Most probably Nuphar pumila... (but could also be lutea or japonica)


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## smartie2000 (Mar 17, 2010)

haha you beat me to it


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## parvi_17 (Mar 17, 2010)

Thanks for the close-up - very pretty. I agree it's a Nuphar (and I would also bet pumila).


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## KyushuCalanthe (Mar 17, 2010)

Looks like an was an awesome trip Fren. I kinda would have gone crazy not exploring at least a little bit for orchids though!


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## Lanmark (Mar 17, 2010)

Love the Nuphar!


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## SlipperFan (Mar 17, 2010)

Thanks for helping me relive our trip to China. So many of your photos look familiar, and some not so much. I wonder how much China has changed since we were there, some 25 years ago. My photos of the great wall were very much different than yours. The mountains were wrapped in fog, so it was as if the wall snaked back into the misty past. China is an awesome country in so many ways.


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## cnycharles (Mar 17, 2010)

very interesting! thanks for the tour


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## goldenrose (Mar 18, 2010)

:clap::clap: EXCELLENT!!!


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## streetmorrisart (Mar 18, 2010)

Thanks for this--so beautiful. I hope to go someday as well.


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