Nanning has many parks scattered across it, and being springtime, the natural beauty of the local flora and fauna were on full display. It was not our plan to visit during this time, but wow has it worked out in our favor. Jessica and I have talked some about how, as we age, we like nature in all it forms more, the parks and the birds and the trails, trees, rivers and valleys; we’ve been lucky to live in and visit places where nature is in her full glory often.
Nanning was no different, and we started this day at the Nanning Garden Expo Park. A huge park, we spent hours here, and only saw half of it, but what an impressive half it was. It covers almost 700 acres with 16,000 different species planted. Once we bought tickets and entered the park, we saw some of the mini-golf carts we had driven in our visit to Zhanjiang, but it was a nice, sunny day, so we skipped them and started walking. Right inside the East Gate, where we entered the Park, was the peaceful Arhat-Pine Court, with a pond filled with Koi, trees trimmed in Bonsai style, and stone paths to wander through.
We continued on as the sun was climbing higher in the sky and we were getting a wee bit warm, and then looked for some shade, crossing a stone bridge.
Soon after we saw trees with pink buds. I said, those are cherry blossoms, right? Jessica wasn’t so sure, and she was right, they were blooming Peach Trees.
They lined the way to Suzhou Garden, man-made but created in the style representing the nature of the city of Suzhou. All of the Expo park is man-made, and there are many gardens created to resemble other parts of China, as well as other countries, which we visited later during our day at the park.
We found ourselves in the Chongqing Garden sanctuary by ourselves, and we sat and enjoyed the peaceful surroundings.
We saw a large jungle gym with a big slide (in the Carefree Garden), and there was no one around, literally, so Jessica decided to climb up and then take the slide down. It wasn’t an easy climb on a rope ladder. She made it up to the top and descended successfully! And we treated ourselves (me, as a good coach) to an ice cream bar snack after.
We continued on, walking around the large lake and appreciating the views.
We wandered through the specific country “neighborhoods” as I mentioned above, seeing buildings and native plants from Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, among others.
Statues of Elephants (Jessica’s favorite animal) and a Peacock (my favorite) were fun to see.
After some more park walking, past the Chinese buildings,
we started hearing directives being transmitted over the loudspeakers found throughout the park, looked at the time, and figured (but could not be certain) these were saying the park was closing soon, so we made our way back to where we started, where the plants in the garden were being watered and, combined with the heat, created a cooling mist effect.
Here are some pictures of the many flowers in bloom throughout the park:
We said goodbye to the Expo Park, having thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
Later, for dinner, we headed out to the Pingxi Night Market. Night markets are one of the most fun things to do in China, and we’ve visited at least one in every city thus far. They are intense, but worth the effort. All the senses will be used and over stimulated, from the good and bad smells of cooking food, to all the different food choices, to checking out the people (and the people checking us out as foreigners), and the loud speakers that each stall seems to have repeating, over and over, wanting you to come to their stall to eat. Especially not speaking the language, and trying to use the translator, with it being so loud, just adds to the challenge.
Also there are stalls that sell all sorts of trinkets and collectables and toys, and the bright lights that distract you too, and the beeping of the odd electric bike rider trying to weave its way (and you wonder if there isn’t a better road for them to take) through the crowd; its a sensory overload, but in a good, controlled chaos type of way.
Watching them fry up the egg and oyster pancake we ate above sitting on tiny stools; next having a very friendly vendor sell us a small cup of cubed potatoes with cumin, to trying to eat small cubes of tofu with a toothpick, then sampling a tea with lime drink out of a tiny thimble cup (then getting a full drink since it was so good); its a fun experience that goes quickly, and once we came out the other side, we were exhausted, but satiated. We found a fruit stand and bought some apples and oranges (the fruit here is top notch) for later days, and ended with sharing final sandwich of minced meat, chopped onions and green peppers, sold to us at the very end of the market (a sandwich we’d had before and were searching for), capped off a great day in Nanning. More to come, stay tuned!
Phil's WayPastCool 