GUANGZHOU

Guangzhou is a Southern China's Megapolis located in the Pearl river delta, formerly known as Canton, province Guangdong. Guangzhou is the third largest Chinese city and the largest city in South Central China. In 2014 the city's administrative area was estimated to have a population of 13.08 million. Some estimates place the population of the entire Pearl River Delta Mega City built-up area as high as 44 million including Guangzhou's nine urban districts. Guangzhou is part of one of the most populous metropolitan agglomerations on Earth. This past week Guangzhou hosted BCI and Asia-Pacific bonsai convention and I was invited there by the organizers. This are my impressions:

 

Guangžou je Južno Kitajski megapolis v delti Biserne reke, nekoč znan tudi kot Kanton, v provinci Guangdong. Guangžou je tretje največje Kitajsko mesto in največje v Južnocentralni Kitajski. Leta 2014 je ožje mesto imelo 13,08 miljonov prebivalcev. Ocenjujejo, da je v celotnem poseljenem delu delte Biserne reke, ki vključuje Guangžou in njegovih devet predmestij, kar 44 milijonov ljudi. Guangžou je del najbolj poseljenega mestnega področja na Zemlji. Prejšnji teden je mesto gostilo BCI in Azijsko-Pacifiško bonsajsko konvencijo. Tja so me povabili organizatorji. Tu je nekaj mojih vtisov:

 

Guangzhou by night

Canton tower, with 600 m third tallest in the world

 

 

I am regular traveler and I travel all over the world. Not so many cities impressed me, but Guangzhou is one of them: by its sheer size, for European conditions everything is so big and megalomaniacal, including number of people. Even the BCI convention was biggest so far and organizers did a great job! In Sun Yat-Sen memorial park they put on the show almost 300 great trees, all influenced by the famous Lingnan bonsai school. As everything in China the bonsai trees (Penjing) are really big too! The presentation of the trees was not so great as we are used to in Europe or in Japan, but nevertheless the trees were great. The majority of them were tropical broadleaves species like Ficus, Segeretia, Podocarpus, Bougauinvillea and Murraya. The lines and especially ramification on some trees were fantastic, for our European taste (trained by Japanese school) there were to much of figurines under them and also pots were not so good. But as I wrote before: this was a fantastic show with great trees and I was really glad that I have the opportunity to study them and to learn about Lingnan school.

 

Kar veliko potujem po celem svetu in ni veliko mest, ki bi name napravila vtis. Ampak Guangžou ga je: z svojo velikostjo, za naše razmere je vse ogromno in megalomansko, tudi število ljudi. Celo BCI konvencija je bila največja do zdaj in organizatorji so se odrezali! V spominskem parku Suna Jat-Sena je bilo na ogled 300 krasnih dreves, vsa v slogu slavne Lingnan šole. Kot vse na Kitajskem, so tudi drevesa (Pendžing) zelo velika! Predstavitev dreves ni bila na takšnem nivoju, kot smo ga vajeni v Evropi ali na Japonskem, toda ne glede na to, so bila drevesa krasna. Večino so predstavljali tropski listavci vrst kot so Ficus, Segeretia, Podocarpus, Bougauinvillea in Murraya. Linije in še posebej razvejanost na nekaterih drevesih je bila fantastična, za naš Evropski okus (šolan Japonsko) je bilo pod njimi preveč figuric, tudi posode niso bile najboljše. Toda, kot sem že zapisal: to je bila krasna razstava z izjemnimi drevesi in vesel sem, da sem jih imel priložnost študirati in se učiti o Lingnanski šoli. 

 

Sun Yat-Sen memorial park

 

Exhibition under the shadow of skyscrapers

 

 

 

There were also shohin  compositions

Judges at work

Author at exhibition

 

 

The Science Musem was the venue for Suiseki (Ornamental or Viewing stone) exhibition and also the venue for demonstrations and lectures.

 

Muzej znanosti je bil prizorišče razstave suisekijev, tam so bile tudi razstave in predavanja.

 

Demonstrations

 

Demonstrations were folowed also by Japanese delegation with Kunio Kobayashi

Suiseki (Viewing stone) exhibition

 

Organizers also prepared excursions for us, we visited four bonsai-gardens in or near Guangzhou. Learning, meeting new friends, I had a really great time in Guangzhou! Big thanks to the organizers! 

 

Organizatorji so za nas pripravili tudi ekskurzije, obiskali smo štiri bonsajske vrtove v ali v bližini Guangžouja. Učenje, spoznavanje novih prijateljev, za mano je krasen teden! Hvala organizatorjem!

 

P.S.: I am preparing a lecture about this trip. We'll met in TORA school in Wensday, 30th of September! Welcome!  

 

P.S.: Pripravljam predavanje z veliko več fotografijami. Dobimo se v TORI, v sredo 30. septembra ob 17-ih. Vstopnina bo, prosim za prijave!