I bit the bullet and went with a group of women to take in the osmanthus flowers which supposedly bloom in late October. They are a flower native to China that are valued for their delicate scent, kind of like jasmine. (Trivia, courtesy of Wikipedia: Chinese osmanthus is a major ingredient in Jean Patou's "1000", the world's most expensive perfume.)
The weather was a little nippy, even by hardy Canadian standards, and made for a bracing walk in the great outdoors. We started at the main building where we got our maps (I love maps!) and our entry tickets.
Let the sightseeing begin!
The other side of the bridge. The plants were still so lush!
Beautifully groomed walkways and ornamental grasses.
Check out the roses. I know there are some of you out there who love them.
This is the end of October, folks! I don't know about you, but I was impressed.
We saw all kinds of plants. You know how I feel about plants. Nice to look at, I appreciate them, but I don't grow them myself. It's all I can do to keep the children alive; I don't need to be trying to nurture some other living things.
As usual, I was more interested in the non-living things, like the buildings and the quarry pond.
The domed buildings were enormous greenhouses off in the distance. I couldn't get closer because we were riding on a little golf cart train. Here's another picture that might help put their size in perspective.
Maybe not.
Oh, well. Other interesting structures were a temple on top of a hill and an old monastery and observatory. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to see them.
The temple
Slightly closer shot
Hey! They're both pretty good. Maybe my photographic skills are improving!
The poor quality here is not my fault. This was as literally as close as I could get to the monastery and observatory. If you squint, that might help.
What I liked the best was the quarry pond. Very cool.
I paraphrase from the brochure:
Chenshan Hill served as a quarry from the early 1950s to the middle 1980s. There are two quarries connected by a newly-built tunnel. The height of the cliffs ranges from 100ft to 330ft. One of the quarry pools is 100 ft deep. (I can't tell which one, as there was something lost in translation. I quote: A 100-foot-deep pool...was excavated in the east of west quarry." Hmm.)
Whatever...still so much fun to explore.
Looking down at the quarry pond and its floating walkway.
First, we had to get down, which we did by using these stairs. Yikes!
Then we exited the covered stairs...
(looking back up)
to go down the outdoor stairs...
O.K. This now counts as exercise.
Made it!
Pond level
I love the colour of the water.
Floating walkway as we approached the tunnel.
Entrance to the tunnel...ooooo...scary!!
The scariest part was the long walk back up to ground level. Definitely exercise.
Did we see the osmanthus? Well, kind of, but they weren't exactly what I would call blooming or blog-worthy. Did I enjoy myself? Yes! Do I want to go back in the spring to see other plants, especially flowering fruit trees, my all-time favourite? You bet! The great outdoors might start "growing" on me yet (ar, ar).
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