Shaanxi Garden: Connecting with the world through Silk Road

One of the cradles of the Chinese civilization, Shaanxi is home to many historic relics. Shaanxi, with a long history and culture, was home to 13 dynasties, such as Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang, which set up their capital cities here, leaving more than 50,000 sites of historical significance. Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty set off from the then capital city of Chang’an on his long journey to the Western Region and opened the Silk Road that runs through Europe and Asia for more than 2,100 years.

The Shaanxi Garden of the Beijing Expo 2019 will be based on the theme of “A New Beginning for Silk Road”. A colorful Silk Road winds through the Shaanxi Garden with a series of landscapes from countries along the Belt and Road, showing the Silk Road Landscape Belt, Ancient Chang'an Scenic Zone, Green Silk Road Scenic Zone, Mountain and Rivers Scenic Zone.

The Silk Road Landscape Belt will use paving materials to express the Silk Road in a vivid way, combining the vertical changes of the terrain to display the flower ribbons composed of Shaanxi's unique plants.

The Ancient Chang'an Scenic Zone will display a capital with rich regional ancient culture, depicting the scenes of the Han and Tang dynasties through landscape symbols such as Tang-style architecture and exhibits, all featuring the starting point of the Silk Road culture. In addition, as an important building component, bucket arches were mature and widely used in the Tang Dynasty. The ancient-style Chang'an scenic spot will display the bucket arches at the Cultural Square and offer educational materials about this architectural technique.

The Green Silk Road Scenic Zone will display the fruits along the Silk Road such as pomegranates and apples. It will display a variety of horticultural techniques in combination with different terrains and small gardening forms. It also uses changes to the modes transportation to demonstrate the historic transformation of the Silk Road to the Belt and Road initiative. Dynamic curves that extend naturally from the mountains combine modern landscape materials with gardening, displaying roof greening technology and providing better participatory experience for visitors.

The Mountain and Rivers Scenic Zone inspired by the Qinling Mountain and the Wei River, creates a space of mountains and water. Planted fruit trees are chosen from Shaanxi's abundant natural treasures. Green sculptures are made for Panda, Crested Ibis, Golden Monkeys, and Takins, which mix well with the environment.

In the overall layout of “One Belt and Three Zones”, the Garden scenery also features great attention to details.

“The Garden will use spatial sequences of different sizes to organize a space for exploration and a space for various functions such as arrivals and departures, rest, viewing, exhibition and publicity. We also use a variety of horticultural materials, including ornamental vegetables and medicinal plants, as well as landscaping green walls, flower borders, green sculptures, combined potted plants and small landscape forms to reflect people’s special feelings about green life,” said Fan Xing, a designer of Shaanxi Garden.