HONG KONG 6
It will be no surprise to you that I spent a day in Hong Kong walking through two gardens. I’m going to write two separate posts to describe these gardens to allow me to use sufficient photographs to adequately illustrate their differences.
The first garden we walked through was the Kowloon Walled City Park. This was once a lawless, high-rise slum which was transformed into an award winning park in 1995. It features a Qing dynasty almshouse, the Old South Gate, pavilions, sculptures, flower gardens and a playground for children.
Old stone walls
Drs. Jean Stone Willans and Rick Willans brought the message of Charismatic renewal to Hong Kong in 1968 and started the Society of Stephen. This movement of the Holy Spirit united many – Chinese and Westerners, Catholics and Protestants, from all walks of life – in the fullness of the New Testament faith. In 1973, Miss Pullinger brought a heroin-addicted Triad leader to the Willianses; he withdrew in their home without sickness or pain (with no medication) through repenting from his crimes, believing in Jesus and praying in tongues given by the Holy Spirit. The news spread – even to the Walled City drug dens – and soon the Willanses were pastoring several “House of Stephen”, where scores of addicts likewise began new lives with the help of volunteer workers.
This paved the way for the law to enter into this once dangerous area and by 1995 the slum was cleared and the area established as an inner city park.
The south gate
The thick walls and narrow entrances would have made entry into this den of thieves and drug addicts extraordinarily difficult.
I was surprised by how few people we encountered as we walked through this park. A group of four elderly men rested in the shade of a shelter while their singing birds hung in cages suspended from nearby trees. No where did I see the groups of elderly men and women playing cards that are so characteristic of the parks I have visited in mainland China. Although tables and seating were incorporated into the park design they were not in use the day we visited.
Tables
This was not a colorful garden, but Carol’s red skirt added a bright splash to my photographs.
Carol shelters in shade
An interesting feature of this park were the tiled paths and open areas, constructed with black and white pebble mosaics. There were eight floral walks, each with a different pattern under our feet, and each designed to feature plants of different colors. For instance The Red Leaf Path was designed to capture the vivid colors of autumn. Plants with red leaves or with leaves that turn red in winter, including queen crepe myrtle, mountain tallow tree and copper leaf were planted to brighten the path. We were not there in autumn and we had missed the early spring blooming of other sections.
Mosaic paths
It was a particularly hot day and one of the shady areas proved to be the Chinese Zodiac Garden which has a dozen smooth, white-stone-sculptured animals. They are used to symbolize people born in different years. These zodiac symbols are arranged according to the tian gan (heavenly stems) and di zhi (earthly branches) of Chinese geomancy.
The first of the 12 zodiac symbols is the rat, its sharpened nose pointing south. All of the animals have been copied from other sculptures. I regret now that I didn’t photograph the elegantly resting horse which is a copy of the stone horses at the Ming Dynasty Tombs, northwest of Beijing. The big clawed tiger, its fin-like back is modeled after the legendary Zhou Dynasty mascot.
Chinese Zodiac Garden
I was born in 1940, the year of the Dragon. In this view you see a dragon, a rabbit, a tiger and the head of an ox. This year, 2009, is the year of the ox. In 2012 it will again be the year of the dragon.
Water feature
The sight of this eucalyptus tree, commonly called a Lemon Scented gum, caused me some amusement. We had rounded a corner to be greeted by this incongruous specimen. As eucalyptus trees go, it made a beautiful picture with its straight white stem, but if this tree was planted in 1995 just imagine what a massive tree it will be a hundred years from now. It towered above all the other trees and shrubs leading me to believe that whoever planted it had no idea of how large it would grow.
Eucalyptus tree
I have photographed many older eucalyptus trees in China where they appear to thrive due to the higher rainfall than they would commonly experience in Australia and because they don’t encounter the same insect pests or diseases. They are also usually more shapely than their parent Australian trees, which suffer from wind and storm damage.
With one more look at the map to ensure we hadn’t missed any of the garden, Carol and I decided to move on to the Nan Lian Garden at Diamond Hill.
Kowloon Walled City map
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