Gardens in China

In this new companion book to The Garden Plants of China, Peter Valder describes more than 200 gardens he has visited in China. He documents temple courtyards and gardens, evocative enclosures of ancient burial grounds and imperial tombs, and public parks, botanical gardens, and arboreta, most of which have sprung up since 1949. Gardens in China is illustrated with more than 500 color photographs, many of them depicting gardens not previously illustrated in any Western publication, as well as reproductions of illustrations of historical interest. With their distinctive characteristics, the gardens of China are among the most fascinating in the world. This book is essential reading for visitors to China with an interest in gardens, garden history, and Chinese culture. Awards for this book:Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book

Peter Valder, educated at the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge, is a retired botanist with a lifelong interest in gardens and gardening. He has also been involved in the popularising of plants, gardens and horticulture in general, making appearances on radio and television, lecturing, and writing for magazines. As well as this, his enthusiasm for his family's garden in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales led him to travel extensively in South-east Asia to collect plants suited to Australian conditions. He first visited China in 1980, and between 1994 and 2000 has made nine further visits, principally to see and photograph gardens and garden plants

Mouchou Hu (Mouchou Lake) This lake is named after Lu Mochou, a woman of the Southern Qi Kingdom (479-502), who is supposed to have lived here. It is just outside the line of the western wall of the old city and has been a famous scenic spot at least since the Song. It is said that the first Ming emperor played chess here with his general Xu Da in the Winning Chess Hall, though presumably the present building of the name must do no more than commemorate the alleged event. After 1949 the area was rejuvenated and is said to have become the city's most admired park, though it may not be everyone's cup of tea. Various buildings are grouped along the southern shore of the lake, rockeries have been constructed, and a statue of Lu Mochou now stands in the middle of a pond in one of the courtyards (fig. 5.75). A wide range of traditional Chinese garden plants has been established, including bananas, lotuses, snowball trees, Paulownia fortunei, various crabapples, Wisteria sinensis and flowering peaches. Owing to its popularity this park exhibits the well-worn look which is so often the lot of such places. And from time to time it falls victim to the vagaries of taste. When I visited it, a subsidiary lake, with water so enriched that it was completely covered by floating weeds, had clusters of red and yellow umbrellas distributed over its entire surface. I suspect that, with its auspicious colours, this expression of creativity received much approval. Photo above: Umbrellas arranged on the weed-covered surface of a pond, Mouchou Lake, Nanjing.