11.9.2023
A forest in the middle of a city.
This park covers an area of 860,000 square meters (9,300,000 sq ft) and holds one on Guangzhou’s most famous tourist spot, the Five Rams sculpture.
I wandered in from the east entrance on a sunny Monday morning. It was around 10:30 as I entered the large and quiet park. I was overwhelmed by the size of the front gate wall and the private peacock island in the middle of the lake.
As I walked around the lake I noticed over ten separate carousels, games and playgrounds -including two outdoor car game simulators. There are many pedal boats that I think are rentable.
Headed aimlessly up the mountain into the Relic of a Square Fortress. There I was greeted by the biggest butterfly I’ve seen. Everything from buildings, plants and animals to even silverware is big here in China.
The park was filled with flowers and rocks with Chinese characters on them. These types of stones with red markings can be seen in almost every park or temple area here.
I was on my way to find ‘Could Bridge’ but I got lost and found two adorable pandas instead. They were worth the million stairs though I didn’t find the Cloud Bridge and was now in a hurry to get back.
An old fortress and wall served as my guide on the way back to east entrance. It felt like something out of a Studio Ghibli movie. I wish I could’ve stopped and stayed there for a while.
I was glad to find more “landmarks”. This (I believe) is Yuexiu Academy of Classical Learning. I am not sure if it is still in operation but at least a part of the historic building is open to the public.
I accidentally walked all the way to the main entrance on the other side of the park. At this point I thought I’d be at the south entrance where I could be able to see the Sun Yat Sen memorial hall in the same trip but I was way off and had only an hour to navigate back.
I looked longingly at all the tour busses I passed. There were a surprising amount of buildings such as restaurants, apartments, a school, a tourism center and even a police station.
The park could even fit an amusement park. The joyful screams of rollercoaster riders brought some energy to the park though they made the park less peaceful. I didn’t let the screams disturb me since they can only be heard when close to the rides and the park has much more space to have peace.
It started raining just as I arrived back at the east entrance. I headed home earlier than intended and missed out on every tourist attraction there was nearby but I had fun nevertheless.
Thank you for reading!
