(Our camera was stolen last week, so I’m posting a blog I had written and saved from earlier this summer).
During one of weekly afternoon breaks, we walked around “Lotus Pund Park”:
The Chinese people are amazingly skilled at placing a peaceful, small park in the middle of a city:
The park is named after the Lotus flower pagoda in the middle of the pond:
People fish in the pond, even on a sunny afternoon:
Perhaps they’ll catch the “dragon necked turtle” (at least, that’s what we thought he looked like):
For those who wanted to stay out of the bright sunlight, they could also go “goldfishing” in the shade:
Of course, there is plenty of shade for card players,
and the ubiquitous park musicians:
Click here for a sample of their music: Park Music
While walking though the park, we found this unusual sculpture – it’s the first time I’ve seen a statue of a dead guy:
The park actually had decent public restrooms, unless you are “deformed” and can’t move the bench stored in front of the special stall:
In a city of 7 million people, we are thankful for places to escape the hustle and bustle:
Elijah thinks that turtle looks funny!
From an econ standpoint, wonder how they came by the land for these parks – perhaps they’re old, but given the pace of development, wonder if variations on eminent domain are frequently used.
Most of the parks are very old, obviously built before the land values bubbled up. In a city of 6+ million people, the parks are an essential quiet oasis that would be very difficult to remove.