A Visit to Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou

A school of carp and a lonely peacock...

Hmmm, gardening in Toronto as 2013 ends? Not a pretty picture with many trees severely damaged due to the recent ice storm. (An estimated 20% of Toronto's tree canopy was destroyed.) Temperatures are also expected to plummet this week to lows of minus 15-20 degrees Celsius. 

And it's only the beginning of January!

I retrieved some pictures from a warmer time in July 2012 for you from our family's trip to China. This post covers part of a day visiting the Flower Harbor Park, a scenic attraction near the southwest part of West Lake (Xi Hu) area near Hangzhou, China.

Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou lotus bud 

The Park ("Hua gang") should better be described as "Viewing Fish at Flower Harbor" as it is one of the ten idealized views of West Lake. (Others include the poetically named "Autumn Moon over the Calm Lake" and "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon".) Like the classical Chinese gardens in Suzhou (The Lingering Garden is one I profiled recently), the West Lake Cultural Landscape is considered by UNESCO as having "Outstanding Universal Value" and merits protection by being on its World Heritage List.

If you're a student of  landscape design, West Lake's poetic views express

"the very specific cultural tradition of improving landscapes to create a series of 'pictures' that reflect what was seen as a perfect fusion between people and nature, a tradition that evolved in the Tang and Song Dynasties and has continued its relevance to the present day. The 'improved' West Lake, with its exceptional array of man-made causeways, islands, bridges, gardens, pagodas and temples, against a backdrop of the wooded hills, can be seen as an entity that manifests this tradition in an outstanding way." Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1334

Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou, lotus buds 

Maybe you're not really interested in Chinese landscape design and just want to see pretty flowers. Well, I got some good and bad news. The good news is that if you visit in late spring/early summer (May? June?), the Park's Peony Garden should be full of big blowsy herbaceous blooms. Apparently, crabapple, azaleas and peach blooms are glorious then as well.

The bad news is that I visited in July so no peonies for you this time. Visiting in May wouldn't be a bad time, weather-wise, as I expect the humidity and heat to be less oppressive.

More bad news: the lotus (Nelumbo nucifera?) above and below weren't in bloom yet!

Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou, lotus

Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou 

More "poetic" views seen from the paths and walkways throughout the park:

West Lake, Flower Harbor Park, Hangzhou  

West Lake, Flower Harbor Park, Hangzhou.
A little further to the right...

Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou.
 Nice borrowed view!

Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou, China

Path at Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou 

Flower Harbor Park woods, West Lake, Hangzhou.
I guess the Musa are hardy here.

Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou peacock.
We didn't see females around so maybe he was strutting just for us!

We made our way to the most "touristy" part of the park: the Red Carp Pond.  Maybe "touristy" is mean-spirited, it's not like concession stands and hawkers were surrounding us. There were simply hundreds of visitors marvelling at the massive school of goldfish/carp/koi pooling around us, begging for fish food (which you could buy of course). I'm sure the gardens and plants were nice but the fish viewing was the real reason visitors came here. After all, the poetic description is "Viewing Fish at Flower Harbor", for good reasons:

Flower Harbor Park, Red Carp Pond,  West Lake, Hangzhou

Red Carp Pond, Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou 

Sean at Red Carp Pond Flower Harbor Park, West Lake, Hangzhou

Do you have "poetic views" in your gardens?

By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog" Google Google Find us on Google+

The Lingering Garden in Suzhou, China

Classical Chinese garden design at Liu Yuan

The funny thing with the frigid windchill and impending snow storm is that I'm out of "garden mode."  I'll have to stretch my definition of  "gardening"  for readers over the next 5 (!) months until spring, mercifully, returns to us in Toronto. Which could occur in April 2014, maybe. 

Depressing!

It's good to keep the cold weather in perspective because, if we're completely honest, we tend to moan and gripe about the humidity, heat and bugs assaulting Toronto gardeners in July and August. As a mental exercise, then, see if you can warm up a little by reading this post.

My family visited parts of China in July 2012, eventually ending up in my wife's ancestral village. I posted about our visits to the Summer Palace and Ming Tombs near Beijing  previously under these posts:  "Toronto gardeners need some warmth!" and "Garden muses visits Beijing in July". Now if you ever visited China in July, you darn know well it's hot and humid. No different when we visited Suzhou on the same trip.

Suzhou (pronounced "Sue-Joe") is about 100 km from Shanghai (see this map) and is a major commercial city of about 6 million, give or take a million, in China's Jiangsu province. It's famous for its canals and gardens, or so our tour guide advised us; therefore, off we went to visit the Lingering Garden or Liu Yuan. Although the heat was stifling (around 40 Celsius or upper 90s Fahrenheit humidex), it was an extraordinary experience to see classical Chinese garden design first hand.

Hao Pu Pavilion in the Lingering Garden, Suzhou 

The Lingering Garden is one of nine classical gardens in Suzhou designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. According to the UNESCO site,

"Limited to the space within a single residence, classical Suzhou gardens are intended to be a microcosm of the natural world, incorporating basic elements such as water, stones, plants, and various types of buildings of literary and poetic significance. 

The Lingering Garden dates from the end of the 16th century and is the work of Xu Taishi, also a high Imperial official. Its present name was given to it in 1873 by the Zhengs, who paid a graceful tribute to the former owners, the Liu family, since the Chinese word for "lingering" is similar to the name of this fami1y. When Deputy Minister Shi Zhengzhi lived in Suzhou in the late 12th century he called his house "The Fisherman's Retreat," and this idea was picked up in late 18th century by Song Zongyuan when he created the Garden of the Master of the Nets....

The central part features mountain and lake scenery, encircled by buildings and visited by means of a narrow, winding path which gives unexpected views of great beauty."

(Source: Classical Gardens of Suzhou) 

I completely agree with the last paragraph in the above quote! Let me know what you think.

Hanbi Mountain Villa in the Lingering Garden, Suzhou

Lingering Garden in Suzhou, example of ornamental rock 

Lingering Garden in Suzhou rock garden. 

Compare the permanent grotesque nature of the rockery (the rougher, the better in Chinese gardens) and the softer temporary nature of the bamboo and sedges.

You might not pick it out but there's a crane mosaic in the pebble tiling, lower centre of the picture.

Lingering Garden in Suzhou, down a path with bamboo 

Example of bonsai in the Lingering Garden, Suzhou 

A verdant path in the Lingering Garden, Suzhou 

Lingering Garden, Suzhou detail of pebble path.

Another example of the importance of the  "bones"/hardscape/structure or whatever you want to label the harder and permanent elements in the garden.

Visually interesting and makes for a nice contrast between the smooth pebble tiling versus the rough rockery making up the side retaining walls.

It's not always about pretty flowers!

Example of specimen rock at the Lingering Garden, Suzhou

Lingering Garden, Suzhou rock garden 

Lingering Garden, Suzhou signage.

Translation between languages is often imperfect so I won't be snarky about the "Chinglish" signs like this one throughout the garden. The sentiment is noble, don't you think?

[Editor: Serendipity (aka Google search) allowed me to stumbled upon another blogger who lives in Suzhou and also posted about the same signs in her blog entry titled: The Signage of the Lingering Garden. Her blog called "Year in Suzhou" makes for excellent reading if you want to learn more about the people in the area.]

Lingering Garden, Suzhou blooming water lilies 

Lingering Garden, Suzhou water lily blooms in detail. 

I can never get enough of water lily photos....

Rock garden in the  Lingering Garden, Suzhou.

I'm a huge fan of walled gardens and this picture gives the impression that we're in another room.

Suzhou Lingering Garden rock garden.

Monochromatic greys of the rocks and greens of the sedges and trees forced me to sit, reflect and, yes, linger.

View from Hao Pu Pavilion in the Lingering Garden, Suzhou.

The bridge originating from the left of this photo is covered with wisteria so you can imagine the blooms earlier in the year. I imagine this scene wouldn't be too shabby in the fall either. 

If I had a million dollars...as the song goes...

View towards the Pellucid Tower in the Lingering Garden, Suzhou

Well, at least I warmed up a little reminiscing about that day in Suzhou!



By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog" Google Google Find us on Google+