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Grand old ginkgos grow golden
By Staff Reporters |
September 26, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AT start of autumn, ginkgo trees will reveal their magnificent beauty and usher in the cooler weather with a golden goodbye to the heat. Every year, after the first frost falls, the ginkgo leaves will turn from deep green to yellow and create a gilded world under the shining sun that leaves normal city streets looking like magical scenes in fantasy films.
Ginkgo is an ancient Chinese tree that apart from its beauty also contains vitality-boosting properties. Its canopy can reach tens of meters high and given the right conditions the trees can keep growing for over thousands of years. Therefore, they are known as a "living fossils" in the plant kingdom and often stand sage-like in ancient temples and houses - as if they had been accumulating knowledge since ancient times. There are still many ginkgo trees aged above 300 years in Jiading District, each representing a long history.
New 'business card'
Anting is known as the hometown of ginkgo. Centuries-old ginkgo trees and young ginkgo trees with ages around 10 years planted in some 70 hectares are scattered around this old town. Located in Guangming Village, Anting Town, a 1,200-year-old ginkgo with a serial number of 0001 is reputed as the "king of Shanghai trees." The local government built a park to protect the tree that was planted during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). Besides, Anting is also home to two ginkgos with ages above 250 years old.
Anting government built the Anting Ginkgo Garden in Xiangyang Village in 1998. The garden with an area of 47 hectares is the biggest and earliest ecological garden in the Shanghai suburbs. During the past 13 years, the garden has developed a series of ginkgo-related products like Anting ginkgo fruit and Anting ginkgo organic chicken, bringing good economic, social and ecological benefits to the area. Farmers have planted grapes, mulberries, loquats, Chinese oranges and dates over more than 2 hectares of land around the garden this year along with other cash crops including peanuts, rapes, sweet potatoes and sesames.
Located at Gaotou Xiaohekou, by the west gate of Jiading Town, the Ginkgo Park, featuring jiangnan (south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River) garden style and aimed at protecting 11 old ginkgo trees, is Jiading's second theme park of ancient and famous trees. Each of the 11 ginkgo trees is around 200 years old with a height of some 20 meters. The trunk circumference of the biggest tree is 2.45 meters and the tree community covers an area of more than 600 square meters. The rare old tree community has the highest density of ginkgos in the city. According to historical records, there used to be a South Sage Temple to worship the god of land and a Dragon King Temple here, which were built in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911). This is the reason why these old trees have been well protected.
Drought-resistant plants are grown around the ginkgo trees, which are sensitive to flooding. Gray bricks are laid on the park land to allow old ginkgo trees to breathe freely. A zigzag corridor, flower hall, pavilion, flower pond and an artificial hill lie south of the old ginkgo community and create a classical style.
The old ginkgo tree in the yard on 272 Nandajie Street in the old Jiading Town is also worth a mention. The yard used to be the well-known Qin Garden, named after the celebrity Qin family from Jiading Town. Starting from Qin Suxuan, the garden became the most gorgeous garden in Jiading after several generations of landscaping. The magazine "Chinese Landscape Architecture" compared it with Beijing's Grand View Garden described in the famous Chinese novel "A Dream of Red Mansions." Even now there are exquisite trees in the garden, including ginkgo, Chinese elm and Chinese wingnut, all are above 200 years old. To further protect these old trees, the district's greenery department removed cement slabs, which hindered normal breathing, and laid permeable bricks around these old trees.
Ginkgo is an ancient Chinese tree that apart from its beauty also contains vitality-boosting properties. Its canopy can reach tens of meters high and given the right conditions the trees can keep growing for over thousands of years. Therefore, they are known as a "living fossils" in the plant kingdom and often stand sage-like in ancient temples and houses - as if they had been accumulating knowledge since ancient times. There are still many ginkgo trees aged above 300 years in Jiading District, each representing a long history.
New 'business card'
Anting is known as the hometown of ginkgo. Centuries-old ginkgo trees and young ginkgo trees with ages around 10 years planted in some 70 hectares are scattered around this old town. Located in Guangming Village, Anting Town, a 1,200-year-old ginkgo with a serial number of 0001 is reputed as the "king of Shanghai trees." The local government built a park to protect the tree that was planted during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). Besides, Anting is also home to two ginkgos with ages above 250 years old.
Anting government built the Anting Ginkgo Garden in Xiangyang Village in 1998. The garden with an area of 47 hectares is the biggest and earliest ecological garden in the Shanghai suburbs. During the past 13 years, the garden has developed a series of ginkgo-related products like Anting ginkgo fruit and Anting ginkgo organic chicken, bringing good economic, social and ecological benefits to the area. Farmers have planted grapes, mulberries, loquats, Chinese oranges and dates over more than 2 hectares of land around the garden this year along with other cash crops including peanuts, rapes, sweet potatoes and sesames.
Located at Gaotou Xiaohekou, by the west gate of Jiading Town, the Ginkgo Park, featuring jiangnan (south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River) garden style and aimed at protecting 11 old ginkgo trees, is Jiading's second theme park of ancient and famous trees. Each of the 11 ginkgo trees is around 200 years old with a height of some 20 meters. The trunk circumference of the biggest tree is 2.45 meters and the tree community covers an area of more than 600 square meters. The rare old tree community has the highest density of ginkgos in the city. According to historical records, there used to be a South Sage Temple to worship the god of land and a Dragon King Temple here, which were built in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911). This is the reason why these old trees have been well protected.
Drought-resistant plants are grown around the ginkgo trees, which are sensitive to flooding. Gray bricks are laid on the park land to allow old ginkgo trees to breathe freely. A zigzag corridor, flower hall, pavilion, flower pond and an artificial hill lie south of the old ginkgo community and create a classical style.
The old ginkgo tree in the yard on 272 Nandajie Street in the old Jiading Town is also worth a mention. The yard used to be the well-known Qin Garden, named after the celebrity Qin family from Jiading Town. Starting from Qin Suxuan, the garden became the most gorgeous garden in Jiading after several generations of landscaping. The magazine "Chinese Landscape Architecture" compared it with Beijing's Grand View Garden described in the famous Chinese novel "A Dream of Red Mansions." Even now there are exquisite trees in the garden, including ginkgo, Chinese elm and Chinese wingnut, all are above 200 years old. To further protect these old trees, the district's greenery department removed cement slabs, which hindered normal breathing, and laid permeable bricks around these old trees.
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