Sharing Chengdu: Wangjianglou Park

Kirk loves willows--they remind him of his home in Blanding!

In keeping with our determination to "see it all", we try to go out every weekend to some place interesting in Chengdu or its suburbs. We recently went to Wangjianglou Park. This park is on the Jinjiang River where the ancient boat dock used to be the hub of transportation. Women embroidered brocades on the banks of the river, and washing them in the river made them very shiny. (Of course that was before 13 million people moved in.) The most commanding building of the park is the Wangjiang Pavilion, 39 meters tall.

It's so nice to go anywhere where the beautiful plants and delicately-curved buildings are peaceful and restful. We frequently see elderly people in the parks, relaxing, chatting, playing mahjongg or even this delightful man who was writing calligraphy on the sidewalk with a huge brush using the water from the fountain as his "ink".

The park is a memorial to the famed poetess Xue Tao. She was also the inventor of dyes made from flowers (using the petals of the cockscomb and water lily) and wrote her poems in the dark red dye. There is a well which you can see in the park where she made the dyes, and there are statues of her and copies of her poetry on display.

Poetess Xue Tao and her admirer.


The decorations on the buildings are so lovely. See the colorful wood sculpture above my head to the right.

The gardens are so beautiful. I always think of Jeremy, my son-in-law, who is a landscape architect. "We need to show this idea to Jeremy!" I love how the water trickles through this winding path on the bridge to the other side. Who ever said water has to go UNDER the bridge? It can go THROUGH it!

There are 23 or so different kinds of bamboo in this park. Some of them are so huge, and others, small and delicate. There is one spot where you can go through a bamboo archway.