Nature and Fresh Air in Guangzhou?

June 25, 2010

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The air in Guangzhou is actually pretty bad in most places. The booming industry along with a population over 10 million probably play their part in that. But during our trip in May 2010 I got to see another side of Guangzhou: nature and fresh air in the South China Botanical Garden. It is located in the northeastern part of Guangzhou on Xingke Road 723 in the Tianhe district.

I’ve seen this in many other locations, but it never ceases to amaze me. Either Asians have a soft spot for completely staged wedding pictures or I just always notice the few that do. I’ve seen it happen at the Eiffel Tower and in Les Tuileries: Asian newlyweds in the most uncomfortable and unnatural poses having their picture taken by professional photographers. So why not in this park as well?

I really found the huge bamboos fascinating. Super cool! I have a tiny one at at home that doesn’t seem to grow at all Must be a different kind!

Another fascinating sight: trees with their roots above the ground.

The park is so huge that we decided to rent these four-wheeled bicycles to see more of it. Very fun!

Lots of neat bridges too! We took our four-wheeled bikes over this first one multiple times. First you had to pedal really hard to get up and then you had a lot of speed going down. By the second time, we had a group of Chinese kids cheering us on while we were making our way up and laughing when we went down way too fast. Strange foreigners that we are!