How exciting! Keep us posted on your adventures and if you decide to do a blog let us know where to find it.

Mike

Mike,

I started a blog yesterday - "As The Pig Flies - To China"

It can be found on mylifeoftravel.com.

Send me mail to sagebrush36@mac.com and I will tell you how to access it.

If anyone else is interested, pls do the same.

I hope I can access GardenWeb from China.

Sagebrush

I loved the flora in China. I was in Hangzhou in'79 going to school. Yes, think hot and humid, very hot and very hummid. Hanging hot fog with temps near 40 C. Everyone in Hanhgzhou said Nanjing was even hotter. I don't remember a lot of succulents. I do remember crepe myrtles, bamboo, lilies, lotus. The gardens were beautiful to my eyes but the plantings at that time were ragged. It was not long after the cultural revolution, and gardens were considered criminally bourgeois. I am sure that has changed. I had the most amazing experience in Souchou. I was at this garden because a friend had heard that a most amzing historic collection of bonzais was coming out of hiding and was to be displayed at this garden. I walked in and they had these worn tables set up , and on it were the MOST UNBELIEVABLE bonzais I have ever seen in my life. Some were 400 , 500 years old. Some did not even look like trees but see wood, or the weathered bark pealed off a tree with a few branches and leaves. The forms were most unusual. They were not so formalized as Japanese bonzai. the aesthetics was so much more experimental pushing the plant to extremes of weathering. They were not so hung up on the keeping of the plant tiny. It was more about form and texture, so the twisting and convolutions were extreme. The old men that had taken them and protected them through the cultural revolution were there to tell their stories. I never made it to Nanjing. I made it as far north as Wuxi and Souchou. IT was a different time when I was there. The Shanghai airport had one small terminal, No sky scrapers above ten floors that I could see. People were still wearing the Mao uniforms and the girls all had their peter pan collars. The summer that I was there the brave and adventuresome women started wearing dresses out in public. That was so shocking to my friend. A lot of the fauna was just like I see in the south, because it all came from china mostly.

I loved the flora in China. I was in Hangzhou in'79 going to school. Yes, think hot and humid, very hot and very hummid. Hanging hot fog with temps near 40 C. Everyone in Hanhgzhou said Nanjing was even hotter. I don't remember a lot of succulents. I do remember crepe myrtles, bamboo, lilies, lotus. The gardens were beautiful to my eyes but the plantings at that time were ragged. It was not long after the cultural revolution, and gardens were considered criminally bourgeois. I am sure that has changed. I had the most amazing experience in Souchou. I was at this garden because a friend had heard that a most amzing historic collection of bonzais was coming out of hiding and was to be displayed at this garden. I walked in and they had these worn tables set up , and on it were the MOST UNBELIEVABLE bonzais I have ever seen in my life. Some were 400 , 500 years old. Some did not even look like trees but see wood, or the weathered bark pealed off a tree with a few branches and leaves. The forms were most unusual. They were not so formalized as Japanese bonzai. the aesthetics was so much more experimental pushing the plant to extremes of weathering. They were not so hung up on the keeping of the plant tiny. It was more about form and texture, so the twisting and convolutions were extreme. The old men that had taken them and protected them through the cultural revolution were there to tell their stories. I never made it to Nanjing. I made it as far north as Wuxi and Souchou. IT was a different time when I was there. The Shanghai airport had one small terminal, No sky scrapers above ten floors that I could see. People were still wearing the Mao uniforms and the girls all had their peter pan collars. The summer that I was there the brave and adventuresome women started wearing dresses out in public. That was so shocking to my friend. A lot of the fauna was just like I see in the south, because it all came from china mostly.

It is true that Chinese and other Asian style of Bonsai are ignored in the west. The few dedicated Chinese Bonsai I have seen,were almost shocking to see. Just a whole 'nother view of tree keeping.Even the pots were much more vibrant and in your face(sorry about my American terms!). The fat plant bonsai here are more Chinese in a way,than the Japanese style.

Some of them were not even treelike. One could hardly see how they could be a tree. OOPs, i am getting off topic from the cactus angle but afterall this thread is about China. Do they have cactus in the Gobi? That is the question.