Now that the winter holiday is here, it’s a perfect time to go out and explore Guangzhou. The weather is chilly, but still nice for walking around (much better than summer when it’s brutally hot!). And outside is actually pretty warm.
When I was thinking about places to visit and research to share with you, I originally planned to go to Chen Clan Academy (陈家祠, chen jia ci), which is a museum sharing a bit of the history of the Chen Family. This building is their ancestral home. But on my way there, I noticed 越秀公园 (Yuexiu gong yuan; Yuexiu Park) on the subway, and I decided to go there instead. However, as I was leaving the metro, trying to make sure that I went out the right exit, I noticed another park on the map. I didn’t remember ever going to the Guangzhou Orchid Park (广州兰圃, Guangzhou lan pu) before, so I decided to check it out.
I was a little hungry, so as I was leaving the metro station, I grabbed a 鸡蛋仔 (jidanzai, like a fluffier waffle) for a quick snack. It was very tasty and I munched on it while walking to the park.
When I arrived at Guangzhou Orchid Park, I realized that I had been there once before with a friend who is really good at finding nice, beautiful places to relax. That time, we had walked around and then sat and chatted at a tea shop for a while. I couldn’t find the tea shop again. Once, I walked into a building to see if that was the tea shop. I went in with a few other people, and after I walked in, the worker told me that it wasn’t open for tourists. So I left. Oops!
But I walked around the park and enjoyed looking at all of the different orchid varieties. Even in January, they had lots of orchids blooming. Orchids thrive in warm, wet climates (like Guangzhou) although in January it’s sometimes a bit dryer. (https://windflowerflorist.com/blogs/news/orchids-season)
According to a sign introducing the garden, the garden was originally a botanical garden and there are still many different kinds of plants in addition to the orchids. The sign says that there are more than 200 species of orchids and around 10,000 potted plants. That’s a lot of orchids! I did not count them, so I can neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of this claim.
There are even some little shops that sell orchids. At the shop near the entrance, I didn’t see any prices on the orchids, and there was no one to ask, so I’m guessing they’re a bit expensive, but when I looked them up on Taobao, I found some plants for 25-40 kuai ($3.50-$5.70) depending on whether you want just the plant, a package, or a pot. I’m thinking about getting one after I get back from my winter travels.
Orchids have a special place in my heart since my Chinese name includes 兰 (lan), the Chinese character for orchid. My Chinese friend gave me this name, and I love it. At the time, two of my other foreign friends also had flowers in their names. There are four famous Chinese flowers, so we figured if we could just find one more friend, then we would be a great set.
Before adopting the flower as a part of my name and identity, I wasn’t particularly fond of orchids. My mom sometimes had them at home, especially the spider orchid. It was pretty, but with a name like “spider orchid” it always felt a bit spindly and sparse to me. I liked full and beautiful flowers—even cheap ones like carnations.
But over the years, I have grown to like orchids more, and I loved seeing all of their different varieties at the Orchid Park. They have spider orchids, but they also have rich full flowers. They have so many colors including purple, yellow, white, pink and combinations of all of them. I loved the ones with dark speckles in the middle. The varieties amazed me. I’m sure many of them were bred by people, but I’m also amazed at the creativity of our glorious God who gave us flowers like orchids in the first place. What an idea!
The park isn’t very big, so I took my time walking around and enjoying the beauty of the flowers. There are several different buildings (some of them are ones that you can enter!) with different displays of flowers inside.
Even though I went by myself, I met lots of interesting people (and cats!) while I was there. At one point, a small bridge without railings crossed over a little stream. It was a bit narrow, and since people were coming from both sides, sometimes you had to wait a bit to cross it. At one point, I waited for an older lady to cross first. After crossing onto my side, she said thank you and then put her hand on my shoulder. “Did you know that I’m over 70 years old!” She said. I was surprised and replied, “Wow, I would never have guessed!”
Another lady came up and started to take a picture with me. I didn’t want random people to start taking pictures with me without asking, but I assumed that she didn’t realize I could speak in Chinese. When I asked her if she wanted a picture, she was relieved that I understood what she wanted. She had her friend take the picture and looped her arm into mine. After that, she traded places with her friend who also wanted a picture.
Most of the younger people were more interested in taking pictures of themselves. Several girls had hired photographers and some had dressed up in old traditional costumes. I liked looking at the different outfits.
As I was heading toward the entrance, an older man pointed to a rock and tried to communicate in English. He had a camera, so I could guess that he wanted me to stand by the rock which was in some really good light and take a picture. A young boy nearby also heard the conversation and when he realized I could speak Chinese, he came up to help out. In the end, the man was so excited about the light on the rock, that he took a picture of me with my phone. It was a pretty nice picture, and he was right—the lighting was great!
I enjoyed the park, and I would recommend going if you have an hour or two to spare! So let me put all of the key information here for you.
1. Where is Guangzhou Orchid Park?
Go to Yuexiu Park (Metro line 2), exit B2 and walk across the square.
Chinese name: 广州兰圃 (Guangzhou Lan Pu)
2. How much does it cost?
8 kuai for the full price ticket
3. How long should you expect to spend there?
1-2 hours. It’s not very big. If you walk quickly, you could probably finish in 30 minutes, but if you take lots of pictures, then maybe closer to 2 hours (by lots of pictures, I mean hundreds).
Outside the park, there are two nice little shops. One has a bunch of little knickknacks. The second one has the place to rent traditional clothes. I planned to look at the clothes and get an idea about them so I could recommend them to you perhaps, but I got distracted because they also sold essential oils. I love good essential oils, so I spent a while talking to the lady about the oils and their uses. The shop smells very lovely!
