Shanxi Garden: New Landscapes, New Home

At the International Horticultural Exhibition 2019 Beijing (Beijing Expo 2019), Shanxi Garden will display the beauty of the province via five scenic areas: the entrance area, the Majestic Taihang, the Vast Lüliang, the Flowing Fen River and the Paper-cut Box Courtyards.

The entrance of the garden is named Jinshan Jinmei (literally “the perfect Shanxi”), which takes after Shanxi’s acronym Jin in Chinese and illustrates its beauty (shan and mei). The architecture derives from the door of the “Chang's Courtyard,” a top-level creation among the Shanxi residential buildings. It features a solemn, antique and elegant touch that effectively shows the characteristics of Shanxi. The terraces on both sides are arranged symmetrically and accentuate the main landscape, thus forming a sense of stability and solidity.

In the Majestic Taihang, the Taihang Mountain stands tall and steep. Modern techniques are adopted to display the mountain's magnificence, uniqueness, steepness and grandeur. Cluses have been carved out between mountains to show the eight valley passes of Taihang. Visitors can go across the water, travel through the canyons, walk on trails up the mountain, overlook the flower valley, and mount to the top for a panoramic view. The landscape provides a vivid experience for visitors and illustrates the achievement of local forestry development as well as people’s resolution and courage for an overall transformation.

The Vast Lüliang boasts large-scale fruit production and reflects the happiness of livelihood and forestry. The Lüliang Mountain area is an old revolutionary area stricken by poverty and a fragile ecology. The scenic area includes mounts of gold and silver, fragrant apricot flowers, terraced fields and fruit trees and bonsai gardens, showcasing Lüliang's benign development path of production, prosperity and ecology.

As the mother river of Shanxi, the Fen River has nurtured the ancient civilization and carried the long history of Shanxi. Since the modern times, however, the ecological environment along the river has been seriously damaged. The Flowing Fen River presents the source of the river through the three scenic spots—the Fairy Source, the Verdant Pool, and the Crystalline Water—featuring a demonstration of the ecological water purification technology.

Shanxi is the cradle and carrier of the Chinese civilization for 5,000 years. The Paper-cut Box Courtyards carries out a collective display and diverse interpretation of the four typical cultural elements of Shanxi through the common box-shaped yards. The landscape focuses on the inheritance and development of the local culture, and intends to convey a cultural and historical message to tourists. 

The layout of the four box courtyards takes from the Shanxi Courtyard. It adopts the axis layout and spirals outward. Walking through the yard is like going through layers of a palace. The residential houses in Shanxi are high-walled courtyards, resembling the shape of boxes. Paper-cutting is a traditional art element in the province, hence the name of the landscape. The four courtyards adopt a unified layout, with distinguished cultural characteristics featuring different materials, water, vegetation, and techniques of expression.