Views from China

Over the holidays, I made a trip to China and as usual, took as many photographs of interesting subjects as possible. This time I came prepared with a second battery for backup. I'm still quite partial to landscape and botanical subjects as you'll soon find out!

My first opportunity for taking photos was Lianhuashan Park in Shenzhen (near Shenzhen Library). I went on a weekend so it was very crowded with people young and old looking to spend a leisurely day out in the sun. The park is situated off a relatively busy road with the main entrance adorned with a pretty arrangement of red and yellow flowers:

Not sure what this flower was

Yellow Chrysanthemums

Walking past the entrance and into the park, I found a group of bushes with a beautiful salmon-colored flower. This flower demanded not only my attention but also the attention of other park-goers who snapped away as I did.

After snapping a few dozen pictures, I continued on my way and shortly thereafter, came to be under the shades of these tall palm trees. Being in subtropical China, Shenzhen had relatively warm weather even in winter. This was quite the opposite of my home in East Coast USA, which was digging itself out of a blizzard at the time!

I couldn't resist taking a shot from directly below on of these towering palms:

Next to the palm trees were several specimens of this tree that reminded me of a peacock's tail. A young family asked me to take a couple of photos of them in front of it and I happily obliged.

These next plants were what I now assume to be ferns whose brilliant colors caught my attention as its leaves were backlit by the sun.

Upon entering Lianhuashan Park and seeing that there was a pathway to the hilltop, I was determined to read it. I walked and climbed for approximately one hour before I reached the summit, on which a viewing square was built for tourists to enjoy. The first thing I noticed was the breathtaking view of Shenzhen from atop Lianhuashan:

View of from the top of Lianhuashan (Shenzhen Museum, right-hand side)

In the photo above, Shenzhen Museum can be seen on the right-hand side of the photograph. This building's roof looks like the horns of a bull. This museum contains mainly dioramas showcasing Shenzhen history from ancient to modern times. Also situated on the top of Lianhuashan is a statue of Deng Xiaoping, the statesman who guided China towards a market economy. Being a national icon, many people were having their picture taken in front of the statue's base.

Statue of Deng Xiaoping

While on my way down from the viewing square, I kept my eye out for anything that I didn't see on the way up. These flowers were quite pretty so I snapped some shots:

Well, this concludes my photographs from Lianhuashan Park. My next entry will have photos that I took during my outing to Xianhu (Fairy Lake) Botanical Garden, also located in Shenzhen. Stay tuned!