I am a Footprints alumni teacher currently teaching oral English in Anqing, China. Anqing is a small city by Chinese standards located in Anhui province on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Nevertheless it has its fair share of parks which offer a variety of surroundings. Public parks are so important to the urban Chinese as most live in apartments.
I have come to realize that public parks in China are a microcosm of Chinese culture. Whether one visits at day break, mid afternoon or early evening, countless traditional Chinese activities are being performed or enjoyed by average citizens. These include calligraphy, tai chi, opera, fan dancing, ping pong, badminton, mahjong, and traditional and ballroom dancing, just to name a few. In the early morning many (most tend to be seniors or retired people) are doing some sort of exercise on apparatus that seem rather foreign to a western eye. Many elderly men bring their birds in bamboo cages, hang them in the trees and let them serenade the passers-by. In the afternoon mahjong and card-playing are the most popular. The early evening brings out the dancing crowd complete with instructors featuring both Chinese and western music.
Public parks are also the place to see and enjoy a variety of flowers and ornamental shrubs. Chinese cities, including Anqing, seem to spare no expense these days beautifying public spaces and government properties. The parks are literally ablaze with colour during the growing season and many of these, both the annuals and perennials are common in the west. In my city, for example, there are endless beds of marigolds, pansies, petunias and salvia, as well azaleas, hibiscus and oleander bushes. However this colourful and lush sight generally ends abruptly when one exits the park.
For the most part urban private gardens are non existent. As mentioned above most city dwellers live in apartments and are content with a few potted green plants on their balconies(Mao Zedong, China’s leader for almost three decades, apparently hated potted plants as he thought they were too bourgeois).For most of Chinese history any available land was used to grow fruits and vegetables to feed the growing population.
Like many foreigners teaching English here I too live in an apartment, the entrance to which, to put it mildly, was a bit of a jungle. In Canada, I was an active gardener, as are many of my fellow Canadians. One day as I came home from teaching I stopped in front of my building and began to wonder whether the sea of weeds on either side of the walkway could in fact become a garden. The answer of course was why not.
I first consulted with the school to see if there was any objection. After a few days I got the green light. The next step was to come up with a plan or design. The design was somewhat decided by the availability of garden supplies. Since there are no private gardens, there are no garden centers. What! No Home Depot! I quickly realized that I would have to improvise a great deal. So the plan was to have a western bourgeois garden with “Chinese characteristics”. (This last phrase is now common in all major Communist Party Speeches). With the help of a dear friend I managed to get some basic garden tools (shovel, pick, etc). To prepare the soil in question. Next I decided to create a border with old bricks that had been left near my apartment and use decorative rock which the school kindly provided. I managed to get some flowering shrubs that were being discarded by a landscape contractor and a few annuals from a small street vendor. I also transplanted some plants from abandoned construction sites and acquired some seeds (holly-hock) from a friend’s neighbour.
At first the people in my building and adjacent apartments showed a kind of reserved curiosity as I began the project. What on earth is this “laowai” (foreigner) doing they whispered as I began digging and hauling bricks to the site. However to my delight, as things began to take shape, people stopped and tried to engage me in conversation. The gist of their comments was all favourable and I began to frequently hear the word “piaoliang”(beautiful). Needless to say I was elated. Eventually some neighbours offered to help me water and others brought plants for the garden. Now I feel that it is more of a community garden than my own and it is this aspect that has been the most rewarding part of the whole experience. I continue to expand the garden area and incorporate ideas that I get from my visits to the public parks. In short it is a work in progress that provides me with a lot of satisfaction. So if you’re coming to China, check out the public parks and think about having your own little garden. You will be pleasantly surprised by what may blossom.
P.S.
Here is a list of the pubic parks in Anqing and their locations (entrance to all is free):
- Lianhu Park, Linghu Road South
- Linghu Park, Huxin Road South
- Wanjiang Park, Huxin Road
- Anqing Cultural Square, Linghu Road North
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