The Beijing Botanical Garden at the foot of the West Mountain in Beijing has attracted more and more attention and favor from the people of Beijing over the years with its unique advantages in tourism resources. Not only that, among the tourists who are increasing every year, tourists from other places and overseas have also begun to account for a considerable proportion. I remember that on April 21, 2005, 15 years ago today, the reporter visited here when the botanical garden held the "17th Beijing Peach Blossom Festival, World Famous Flower Exhibition". deep impression.
As soon as I arrived outside the south gate of the Beijing Botanical Garden, I saw that the entrance was completely blocked by visiting vehicles. Tourists poured into the park like a tide, besides many individual tourists, there were also some neatly arranged elementary and middle school students. After the reporters entered the garden with the crowd, a colorful garden world was displayed in front of people. Especially on both sides of the road in the garden, the colorful tulips in full bloom are extremely dazzling.
The reporter came here more than ten years ago, but the scene I see now is very different from the memory at that time. At that time, Zhao Shiwei, then deputy director of the Beijing Botanical Garden, told reporters: "The Beijing Botanical Garden was established in 1956. The total planned area of the Beijing Botanical Garden has reached 400 hectares, including 200 hectares for the tourist area and 200 hectares for the nature protection experimental area. It mainly collects, displays and preserves plant resources in North China, Northeast China and Northwest China, taking into account tropical and subtropical plants It is a large-scale comprehensive botanical garden. It is mainly composed of plant exhibition area, scenic spots and historic sites tour area, and Cherry Valley Nature Protection Experimental Area.”
Zhao Shiwei also told reporters: "In recent years, the number of tourists visiting the Botanical Garden to enjoy flowers has been increasing day by day, and last year it reached more than 2.5 million. Relatively speaking, spring and autumn have the most tourists. Especially in the spring season of each year, the proportion of tourists can account for the whole country. About 50% of the year."
"At the same time, autumn chrysanthemums and red leaves are another peak season that attracts tourists to the botanical garden. The tropical plant exhibition greenhouse in the garden is warm like spring all year round, gathering plants of various families and types from all over the world, some even It is a rare species. Even during the "Spring Festival" golden week, it can set off a small climax of tourism."
During the interview, the reporter learned that the open area of the botanical garden was very small in the past, but in recent years, the development of the botanical garden has undergone tremendous changes. The open area alone has reached 3,000 mu. Landscapes such as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Cherry Valley, Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall, and Liang Qichao's Tomb have all been integrated into the open range of the botanical garden. At the same time, 11 gardens in gardens have been built in the garden, including peony garden, bonsai garden, crabapple garden, rose garden, green peach garden, lilac garden, magnolia garden, peony garden, plum garden and bamboo garden. Visitors can come to see different flowers in each season.
The reporter roamed the Beijing Botanical Garden and saw more than 60 varieties of red, pink, and white Yunlong peaches, variegated leaf peaches, chrysanthemum peaches, and mountain peaches in the crowded Betaoyuan scenic area, with bright colors and different flower shapes. The peach blossoms are open. Since 1989, the Beijing Botanical Garden has held the Peach Blossom Festival every April.
There are nearly 10,000 peach blossoms in the whole garden, forming peach blossom forest, peach blossom slope and peach blossom path. More than 20 kinds of spring flowers and peach blossoms, such as winter jasmine, forsythia, elm plum, crabapple, and cherry, are in bloom together, lining up with green pines and green willows, forming a gorgeous landscape. In particular, the fragrant white peach is the first new artificial hybrid variety completed by the Beijing Botanical Garden. The flowering time of the pink peach fills the gap between mountain peaches and peach blossoms.
On both sides of the corridors leading to some scenic spots, patches of green lawns undulate according to the terrain, like huge carpets forming another pleasing natural landscape of the botanical garden. It is understood that the botanical garden has paved 900,000 square meters of lawn. Walking into the depths of the botanical garden, what people see is a scene full of spring, with lush trees, gorgeous flowers, green grass, beautiful mountains and clear waters, and clear mountains reflecting the clear water, which is a natural beauty.
There is a saying that there is no scenery without water. Although the former Beijing Botanical Garden was picturesque with flowers and trees, it lacked water features, but today's botanical garden is not what it used to be. It is understood that the lake area of the Beijing Botanical Garden built in 2002 has a water area of more than 10 hectares and a water storage of more than 100,000 cubic meters. Standing on the Xianglu Peak of Xishan Mountain, you can clearly see the clear water and three layers of scenery.
Viewed from the lakeside, the lake water is crystal clear, surrounded by green grass, colorful flowers, and various aquatic plants; where the "three ponds and clear water" are connected end to end, the designers make full use of the original terrain characteristics to arrange the water system, and take advantage of the terrain drop Natural methods such as stacked dams, streams and shallow pools are cleverly used to connect the three lakes into one. Make the lake meander naturally, changing scenery step by step.
On the basis of the original plant configuration around the lake area, a large number of new trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers of various colors have been planted, while aquatic and wet plants have been added. The rich plant configuration and unique landscape art make the built lake area rich in layers and brilliant in color.
On this basis, in 2003, in order to restore the original appearance of the Cherry Valley Natural Scenic Area, the Beijing Botanical Garden carried out the second phase of the water system project of the Beijing Botanical Garden, which made the rare scene of eight lakes competing for beauty and gurgling water appear among the green mountains and green trees. In particular, Cherry Valley, a scenic spot in the west of Beijing that has been shut down for many years, has reproduced the beautiful scene of gurgling water and a hundred birds contending, which can be called a fairyland on earth. , different sizes, and beautiful waterscapes with rich and varied spaces. Here, there are waterfalls and springs, towering ancient trees, small streams, winding plank roads, and colorful flowers and trees all around, so that tourists can really appreciate the endless charm of spring.
The Science Popularization Museum of Beijing Botanical Garden is the popular science education base for teenagers in Beijing. It was built in 1996 and opened to the public in 1998. The museum makes full use of a variety of modern technologies to show visitors the basic knowledge of plant morphology, classification, function, etc. and biodiversity protection knowledge. The purpose is to enable everyone to understand some basic knowledge of plants, the living environment of plants, and the common sense of biodiversity protection after the visit, so as to arouse everyone's awareness of protecting plants and caring for the environment. Experts are often invited to make special reports to the public and publicize plant knowledge in various forms.
The tropical exhibition greenhouse of Beijing Botanical Garden has a wide variety of plants and enjoys a high reputation both at home and abroad. Although there were many plants in the original greenhouse, the area was not very large. After an investment of 260 million yuan, the tropical greenhouse has now become one of the top ten buildings in Beijing in the 1990s, with a total construction area of 17,000 square meters and a total area of 5.5 hectares. The architectural design of the tropical exhibition greenhouse is undertaken by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design and Research. With the concept of "memories of green leaves to roots" as the design theme, a sloping glass roof intertwined with "rhizome" is uniquely designed, as if a green leaf is falling at the foot of the West Mountain. Comrade Jiang Zemin personally inscribed the three golden characters "Wanshengyuan" for the tropical greenhouse.
The tropical exhibition greenhouse mainly displays plants and landscapes from tropical and subtropical regions, providing a base for biodiversity protection, popular science education, scientific research and viewing. It is divided into four main exhibition areas: Tropical Rainforest Landscape, Four Seasons Garden Landscape, Desert Plant Landscape, Orchid Pineapple and Carnivorous Plant Exhibition Room. A total of more than 4,100 species of plants, including more than 60,000 plants, were collected and displayed. It is an important science education base for people to understand plants, feel nature, and learn plant knowledge. It is also an important place for plant resource protection and scientific research.
The Tropical Rainforest Exhibition Room covers an area of more than 1,000 square meters, showing the single-tree forest, hanging garden, multi-layer structure, winding vines, buttocks, dripping leaf tips, strangling phenomenon, old stems and flowers, old stems and large leaves. Unique phenomena such as ground cover plants. Stepping into the tropical rainforest exhibition room, you can feel the rich plant species here.
Here, many tall and novel plant landscapes are displayed in front of tourists. People can see the largest strangled plant in the greenhouse, a nearly 9-meter-high banyan tree is strangling a 16-meter-tall Iraqi jujube tree. Instead of competing for sunlight, water and nutrients, it seriously affects the normal growth of the Iraqi jujube tree. Perhaps one day, the Iraqi jujube tree will die and rot due to the strangulation of the fig tree. At that time, people will be able to see a plant shaped like a pig cage, A free-standing banyan tree. Let everyone feel the cruel competition of plants in nature for survival.
The miraculous mystery fruit is a small shrub of Sapotaceae, which bears fruit all year round and is native to West Africa and the Congo. Its biggest feature is that after eating miracle fruit, eating other extremely sour and extremely bitter foods such as lemons will taste sweet and delicious. In addition, here you can also enjoy the bodhi tree, sansouhua, and palm leaf palm, which are closely related to Buddhist culture.
The tropical desert plant exhibition room, also known as the cactus and succulent plant room on the top floor, covers an area of 1,200 square meters, where more than 1,000 species (including varieties) of cacti and succulent plants are planted and displayed, mainly native to tropical and subtropical arid and semi- arid areas.
These plants are highly resistant to drought. Among them, cacti are native to the Americas, while succulents can be found in Africa, Asia and the Americas. This exhibition room is extremely hot, as if in a desert area with high temperature and little rain. The reporter was already sweating profusely after staying there for a while, and the sweat had already soaked his heart.
This exhibition room is divided into succulent plant area, Euphorbiaceae plant area, Sansevieria area, column area, strong thorn area, variety area, pineapple area, aloe area, agave area, cloud area and so on. The strange plants growing in the long yellow sand are the main characteristics of the plants in this exhibition room. The golden amber with a diameter of 80 cm, the giant column with a height of 5.5 meters, and the unique scarecrow all show the novelty of the indoor plants in this exhibition room.
Desert rose and epiphyllum are all plants in this exhibition room. The agave, which blooms only once in its life, is also on display in this room. Agave has the longest flowering in the world, but it can only bloom once in its life, and the plant will die after blooming. The peculiar bachelor tree is called "milk tree" in English. It belongs to the succulent plant of the genus Euphorbia in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is a succulent tree with a strange shape, no thorns and no leaves, so it is called "bachelor tree". The white latex in its stem is poisonous, but oil can be produced. Although it has no leaves, it can still rely on green branches for photosynthesis. In addition, there are a large number of novel plants such as cactus, euphorbiaceae, sedum and so on.
The orchid, pineapple and carnivorous plant exhibition area covers an area of 500 square meters. Here, through small bridges, flowing water, dead trees and strange flowers and other artificial landscaping, it shows people a gorgeous and mysterious tropical garden scene. This exhibition room mainly displays tropical epiphytic plants represented by orchids and pineapples. At the same time, it arranges and cultivates interesting carnivorous plants and ferns and other plants. The display includes orchid plants such as Cattleya, Phalaenopsis, Whelan, Dendrobium, Oncidium, and various bromeliad plants such as fruiting pineapple, Lisui pineapple, shy pineapple, and phoenix lotus pineapple. In addition, the most noteworthy here are those strange carnivorous plants. Nepenthes, Venus flytrap, pitcher plant and several other exotic plants that feed on insects will show you the wonders of nature.
The Four Seasons Garden exhibition room is located in the center of the exhibition. In its 3,500-square-meter exhibition room, it is divided into two parts: the central garden and the palm plant area. The central garden is centered on a giant fountain, surrounded by tall ornamental arbors, and various seasonal flowers are planted all over. The palm plant area concentrates on displaying palm plants with different postures and extremely tropical scenery.
Banyan trees with trunks like flower baskets, delicate flamingoes, poinsettias, longevity flowers, unique Diyong nasturtiums, and precious lotus lanterns can all be admired here. The world's rare plant sea coconut displayed here is the national treasure of the Republic of Seychelles. It is known as the magical love fruit. Its shape resembles the body of a girl, showing the uncanny craftsmanship of nature.
All kinds of ingenious scenic spots in the garden are not only an important part of the Beijing Botanical Garden, but also a good place for tourists to enjoy all kinds of flowers. For example, the largest rose garden in China has planted more than 100,000 rose plants and more than a thousand varieties. A newly built colorful musical fountain in 2003 is located in the center of the circular rose garden. The reporter saw at the scene that more than 100 water column fountains gushed out with the ups and downs of the music melody, and the children jumped and carnivaled in the water flow and music. Showing childish innocence.
The Peony Garden was built in the early 1980s, covering an area of 4.7 hectares. It is the largest peony garden in the north. More than 8,500 peonies and more than 580 varieties have been planted. "Wei Zi", "Yao Huang", "Bean Green", "Da Hu Hong", "Pear Blossom Snow", "Oolong Wo Mochi", etc., in flowering season, red, white, blue, green, purple, yellow, Brilliant colors; various poses, charming Fangfei. The terrain in the garden is undulating, planted with beautiful trees, "Qunfang Pavilion" and "Mandarin Duck Pavilion" are hidden among them, the sculpture of "Peony Fairy" is reclining among the flowers, and there is also a large-scale mural with the theme of "Gejin" in "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio". Tourists add to the fun.
In the Magnolia Garden, there are dignified and elegant white magnolias and lavender magnolias, which attract tourists to stop and watch. Begonia Xunzi Garden has planted more than ten varieties of begonias with bright colors and beautiful shapes, such as "Diamond", "Gemstone" and "Snowball". There are more than 200 varieties of plants competing with each other; mountain cherry, weeping cherry, etc. convey the Japanese style; there are also spring flowers such as iris and bauhinia, which are fragrant and colorful, showing their style. In addition, several other gardens within gardens also have their own characteristics, attracting a large number of tourists every year.
In addition to rich natural landscapes, the Beijing Botanical Garden also has a large number of cultural landscapes. For example, the Reclining Buddha Temple, a thousand-year-old ancient temple, has been enclosed in the scenic area of the park. The Temple of the Reclining Buddha was built in the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty and was repaired in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. The correct name is "Shifang Pujue Temple". Because there is a bronze statue of Sakyamuni Nirvana cast from the Yuan Dynasty to the first year of Zhizhi (1321), it is commonly known as the "Reclining Buddha Temple".
The reclining Buddha is 5.3 meters long, 1.4 meters high and weighs 54 tons. It is the largest solid copper reclining Buddha in the world and is a treasure of the motherland's culture. The environment in the temple is quiet, dense with ancient cypresses, surrounded by ginkgo trees, and the ancient wintersweet in front of the Temple of Heaven is famous for a long time.
Due to the large area of the botanical garden scenic area, due to time constraints, the reporter did not go to places such as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha and Cherry Valley Garden. However, in order to find out the whole story of the birth of the masterpiece "A Dream of Red Mansions", the reporter went to the Cao Xueqin Memorial Hall located in Huangye Village in the park. The memorial hall was built in 1983 and expanded in 1996, covering an area of 1.8 hectares. This courtyard consisting of several country houses is located in the botanical garden of Nuoda, and it has the charm of a paradise.
Document records: According to research by red scholars, Cao Xueqin, a great writer, lived and wrote in the area of the Reclining Buddha Temple in Xiangshan in his later years. In order to commemorate this great writer, according to the artistic conception described in the poems of Cao Xueqin’s friends Duncheng and Zhang Yiquan, in the southwest of Beijing Botanical Garden, the living environment of Cao Xueqin in his later years—Huangye Village is artistically reproduced.
Vegetable gardens and medicine gardens have been opened up in the village, and arrow fields, ancient piers, and wine shops have been set up. In the village, there are scenic spots such as "River Wall Yanliu", "Xueluomen Lane", "Bamboo Fence Maosi", and "Chaifei Wanyan". In addition, the cultural landscapes such as Liang Qichao's tomb and the 12.9 Memorial Pavilion deep in Yingyinggou are also worth visiting.
During this "Beijing Peach Blossom Festival and World Famous Flower Exhibition", as time goes by, various beautiful flowers in the bulbous flower exhibition area, mainly tulips, bloom one after another. Nearly 1 million bulbs of more than 150 varieties of tulips, hyacinths, fritillaria, and onions planted in the exhibition area will be opened one after another, turning the bulb display area into a sea of flowers. In particular, a large number of foreign new and excellent varieties have been introduced in this exhibition, such as ice cream tulip, big flower onion, and nearly 10 varieties of fritillaria, all of which are rare flower varieties in China. In addition to a large number of beautiful bulbous flowers, this exhibition also planted a large number of aromatic plants, so that visitors can smell the unique fragrance of aromatic plants far away from the flower display area.
At the end of the wind gathering, Zhao Shiwei, the deputy head of the park, finally told the reporter: "People who have lived in cities polluted by noise and exhaust gas for a long time will feel extremely fresh and happy when they come here, and they can fully relax their tense bodies and minds. While watching the flowers and scenery, you can also receive some popular science education. Especially for young parents with children, it will benefit a lot. We hope to make the Beijing Botanical Garden a collection of science popularization, sightseeing, and scientific research. It is a well-known Beijing tourist attraction integrating research, plant resource protection and development. We sincerely welcome tourists from home and abroad to visit the Beijing Botanical Garden.” I haven’t been to the Beijing Botanical Garden for many years, but the reporter believes that if I revisit the Beijing Botanical Garden, it must be a surprise. People are more pleasing to the eye and the eye. (Photo: Feng Ganyong)
