25 April 2016 –
Water park seems to conjure up images of water slides, games, and loads of kids (and parents!) having fun.
This is NOT that sort of water park.
This water park is really a big garden surrounded by a man-made pond. It's a lovely place to go – as long as you don't mind sharing the space with LOTS of people.
The colorful flower displays are created with hundreds of flowers in kept in their tiny pots. That way it's easy to change out the flowers once they're past their prime or re-arrange the flowers if you get bored with the design:
I had intended on going on a solitary walk through the park – alone with my thoughts. That's when I bumped into an elderly gentleman who started talking to me in English. All right, I didn't literally bump into him (I did watch where I was going!). It's fairly common for Chinese to say hello and try out their few words of English with the Westerners. However, this gentleman spoke nearly fluent English. I tried my Chinese and he practiced his English. It turns out that he was more than 80 years old and that he had a son and daughter living in the USA. He spoke a little bit of his grandkids and the fact that he was a retired traditional Chinese medicine doctor.
We ended up going our separate ways…with me off in search of the peony garden.
Gardener watering in the Peony Garden:
Baskets and baskets of blue salvia plants- waiting to be planted.
Tree peonies (mu dan)….which ranged in color from bright pink to yellow to white.
A view of the water and the pointy TV tower off in the distance….
Wisteria: