Fairy Lake Botanical Garden 仙湖植物园 – Shenzhen, China

         Before going back to Guangzhou, Farida and I spared some time to visit a site we found on the map called Fairy Lake Botanical Garden. Since we did not understand how to get there by MTR, we took a taxi. We arrived at the garden quite late around 3 pm. The admission fee was RMB 20. We then rushed into it to see what was inside.

        Fairy Lake Botanical Garden is located at no. 160 Liantang Fairy Lake Road at the northeast of Shenzhen over an area of 590 hectares. Nested at Wutong mountain, which is the highest point in Shenzhen, and embedded with lakes, the garden is one of the most popular botanical gardens in China. Just as the name suggests, this stunning garden is indeed a fairy land for nature lovers. Surrounded by mountains and lakes and blanketed with lush lawns and various trees, the garden has pleasant climate for visitors to enjoy the beauty of tropical landscape. It is indeed a wonderful and intoxicating garden. No wonder, it is praised as a haven of peace and harmony where people can find the real tranquility. The garden combines tourism, scientific research and science education. It is also a research center in China because there are not many places in the world where you can observe more than 60 species of ornamental bamboo or nearly 200 endangered plants. Its design follows Chinese architecture of garden. The garden is open daily from 6 am to 11 pm. The garden was first established on May 1, 1983 and opened to public in 1988. Since its first opening, it has attracted over 500 million foreign and domestic visitors.

 

Standing at the entrance gate of the garden

        The garden is extremely large that you need a whole day to visit the entire area. To visit the scenic spots in the garden, we had to climb up the mountain because they are located at the uphill. However, we chose to take the minibus provided by the garden management with a charge of RMB 20 per person if I am not mistaken. I recommend you to take the minibus instead of climbing the mountain to save your energy and time. The garden boasts over 4,000 species and consists of six different scenic spots including “Earthly Paradise”, “Lake Spot”, “Temple Spot”, “Desert Spot”, “Forest Fossil” and the “Pine, Cypresses, Azaleas”. There are also other unique landscapes such as caves, mazes, Heavenly Pond, Billow-enjoying Pavilion, and a museum dedicated to extinct plants and animals.

The pavilion at the lake spot. I love the purple flowers…

The lake is very tranquil giving peace to mind. It is surrounded with various trees and plantations.

 

 

The small ducks are swimming in the lake

 

 

The pavilion shows a strong classic Chinese architecture of garden

 

        After finished taking pictures in the lake spot, we waited for the minibus to pick us up to go to the next spot, the Desert spot.

The glasshouse at the desert spot

 

At the desert spot, there are various kinds of desert plants and cactus

 

 

 

        Unfortunately due to time constraint, we did not have chance to visit the other spots including the famous Hong Fa temple and Paleontological Museum. The Hong Fa Temple is a popular and influential Buddhist temple in Shenzhen that was built in 1985. The Paleontological Museum is established over an area of 2,000 square meters to popularize science. The museum exhibits various kinds of fossils such as dinosaurs, fishes, birds, etc.

        After visiting the two spots of the garden, we took the minibus to go back to the entrance gate. We then took public bus heading back to our hotel to prepare our suitcase to go back to Guangzhou. The garden is an ideal place for nature lovers who like to observe various plants. However, it will be quite a boring place and a tiring journey if you are not into plants world because what the garden displays only revolves around plantations. However, if you want to relax and immerse yourself in nature, a stopover to the garden is worthwhile.

Sources:

Personal experience and additional information from other online articles