Tag: parks

outing – fairy lake october 26

Let’s get out for a half day exploration of Shenzhen’s botanical treasures and a special temple!

On Saturday October 26 we will go together to the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden (仙湖植物园). The lush settings of the large park are the green lungs and heart of Shenzhen, sitting at the foot of Wutong Mountain, Shenzhen’s tallest peak.

The Botanical Garden features 1,349 acres of wild and landscaped tropical vegetation, all around the namesake Fairy Lake, or Lake of the Immortals. Stately trees line the winding roads wrapping the lake, over which looks the grand Hongfa Temple. 

The Hongfa Temple was founded and began construction in 1983 by abbot Ben Huan. This Buddhist temple was the first new temple to be built in China after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Its courtyards ascend the hill in a series of bright tile roofs. Visitors light incense and bow before the grand Mahavira Hall. A new phase of the temple has recently been opened to the west side, with an elegant pagoda rising up in the mist surrounding Wutong Mountain. 

After visiting the temple, we will explore some of the best botanical areas of the garden. Hundreds of miniature bougainvillea and evergreens make up the bonsai garden, a hothouse is filled with diverse cacti and succulents, and a pine garden evokes feelings of Japan with an arcing red bridge punctuating the framed view.

A half day out allows you to enjoy the greatness of nature in the subtropics of Shenzhen. 

Saturday October 26
9:30 Meet Huangbeiling metro
Bus to Fairy Lake Botanical Garden
10:30-11:00 Visit Hongfa Temple
11:00-13:00 Visit Botanical areas
13:00 Finish, continue to visit the gardens or lunch on your own

Price: 58RMB per person, includes garden entrance ticket, shuttle bus inside the park, bus from Huangbeiling, and a bottle of water

How to Book:

Contact Greta on WeChat (Scan QR code)

If adding me for the first time, be sure to mention Trips or Fairy Lake in your introduction.

or contact me by email (chinatealeaves @ yahoo.com)

tomorrowland of shanghai

intro

Shanghai, the new China. There has never been such a place.

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Disney has announced the new lands to be featured at the upcoming Shanghai Disneyland. Mainland China’s first Disneyland theme park is set to open in Spring 2016.

But there’s no reason to wait until next year to visit Shanghai. In fact, many of these new lands, exclusive to the new Chinese park, sound remarkably like places you can already find in China’s largest city.

Adventure Isle

See the fossils of real life dinosaurs at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, recently reopened next to the Jing’an Sculpture Park. Kids can roam and climb the outdoor sculptures for an urban adventure.

Gardens of Imagination

yuyuan

Tucked in one of the oldest parts of the city, there is a garden that a loving son built for his aging father. He named it the Garden of Contentment. Sounds like a Disney story, no? Actually this is the Yuyuan (豫园) Garden in Old Shanghai. Get lost in tangled walls topped with the head and tail of a dragon, and sip tea where the scholars of dynasties past would recite poetry.

Mickey Avenue

old shopping

A Main Street for shopping, this could describe nearly every street in Shanghai. Nanjing Road, the narrow streets of Old Shanghai Bazaar, and more are filled with shops for picking up a souvenir of sparkling Shanghai.

Tomorrowland

nanjing future

Look up anywhere in Shanghai and you’d think you’re looking at the future. Skyscrapers rise out of the skyline like something out of the Jetsons, including one which is even named Tomorrow Square. You even arrive from the airport traveling hundreds of miles per hour on a cushion of air on a Maglev train.

Treasure Cove

old shanghai

Did you know that the oldest part of Shanghai, now called Old Shanghai, was originally a city with a fortified wall built to fend off Japanese pirates? Captain Jack Sparrow wasn’t the first pirate in these parts. Then, visit the Bund and take a night cruise on a pirate ship to see Shanghai’s duelling electrical parade on the two sides of the Huangpu River.

Fantasyland

pudong
second supertall to the right and straight on ’til morning

Perhaps the most fantastical part of extraordinary Shanghai is the new trade zone of Pudong. If you were to build a wonderland of free trade and aggressive development, it would look like Pudong. This enchanted place contains the very real wonders of the Oriental Pearl Tower in glimmering pink, the golden pagoda-like Jinmao tower, and China’s current tallest building, the Shanghai Tower.

See what wonders Shanghai and China already have to offer.