I went to Qingxiu Mountain in Nanning one morning and didn’t really expect much from it, just a walk through the park and be done with it. But then again, why do we goes anywhere without wandering aimlessly, knowing there is always something new around the next corner? Turns out this was one of those spots.
Lanterns were all strung up, apparently as part of a festival set-up. The bougainvillea was all in bloom.
My Surprise Morning at Qingxiu Mountain
Qingxiu Mountain
I randomly found myself in front of a giant statue of God of Wealth, which was totally random but perfectly fitting. it was quiet, very large, and far more interesting then I’d anticipated. Here’s how my morning went.
I arrived just after the gates opened and the entrance area was already decorated with lanterns hanging from trees and strung across the plaza. The entrance area was decked out with lanterns strung across the plaza and hung from tree. Passing through main gate, I found myself in a large open area that looked more like a botanical garden than a mountain park.
The morning light was soft and there weren’t many people yet, which made it easy to just wander without dodging crowd. Once I got past the entrance plaza, there was the bougainvillea! It was everywhere.
Huge trees and bush lined the walkways, and the path were strung with lanterns hanging from tree to tree and down each walkway in long lines (someone went a little crazy with these). I walked through the arches and suddenly I was in a tunnel of paper lanterns and flowers. I wandered around, following paths longer than intended, pausing every couple of feet to stare upwards.
This was definitely garden set up for a festival or celebration time, and it worked.
Higher up, more path lined with bougainvillea wound upward; some were well-trimmed into gardens with open lawns, while other parts has grown wild. In some spots, I could see all across the entire hillside, nothing but waves upon waves of flowering tree everywhere you looked. There is a lot of land here and I didn’t explore it all, but even staying mostly in the lower part of gardens, there was no shortage of things for me to look at.
And then I rounded a corner and there he was: a huge God of Wealth statue that towered gold above small courtyard. Next to him was a golden money tree adorned with ribbons and offerings. it was not at all what I expected on what I believed was just a nature walk.
But when I caught sight of the tiny temple area hidden behind him, it all made sense. People were lighting incense and leaving fruit. I lingered for a while before continuing onward.
Along the path, I saw some more flower gardens planted in terraces up the sides of hillsides. Each was lined up neatly row by row, with a little more bougainvillea mixed in with other flowering shrub here and there. Above, on the higher levels, they’d strung dragon lanterns through; probably also part of that festival theme at the entrance.
It was as if someone decided to take all their ideas about decoration and just throw them all at the place, but it didn’t come across as overdone. The entire park were like that.
On closer examination, I saw patches where they’d planted delphiniums. They grew in thick clumps. Their tall spikes of flowers stood out above the rest of the groundcover.
Then there were some places where they’d spread carpets of impatiens beneath trees, and the delphinium bloom up close were actualy quite pretty… And I got down low for a closer view. The bougainvillea areas looked like they had been stuck in here and there, whereas these garden beds felt more carefully planted, like real project.
At the tail-end of my loop, however, there was a lotus pond that was just barely covered in mist that hadn’t yet burned off water. There was a wooden walkway along the side lined with some more flower bed, but it was so quiet here that all you could really hear was the water. It was a pleasant spot for taking a break before returning to the entrance.
And so on.
Qingxiu Mountain is like that, filled with many thing. Then there were these three full-size decorative windmills set in flower bed. They must of been intended to suggest a Dutch-countryside feeling, but they were utterly un-Dutch and very much like something from a theme park.
This made them kind of charming in their theme park style. I chuckled, snapped the picture, and moved on. I found Qingxiu Mountain was far more than I imagined: part temple site, part botanical garden, part festival grounds, and part whatever-else-they-felt-like-adding.
It took me three hours and I hardly get my nose into everything. Just going to go look at what they did with the bougainvillea is reason enough to go if you find yourself in Nanning one morning and have some time on your hands. Do you have a favorite city park that surprised you, or have you been to Qingxiu Mountain?
Let me know in the comments.
