As part of some Tourism Festival Shanghai’s Century Park has at the moment a large number of Plant Sculptures on display. They have been designed by gardeners of different Shanghai district, various Chinese provinces, and also quite large a number of foreign countries. Countries I remember include France, Spain, Belgium, Brasil, Canada, USA, Japan. Not, however, Germany 🙁

It was a bright sunny late-summer day. And we used the chance to explore the exhibition on inline skates. Like many other people, too (I mean: many other people used the chance…we were one of only a hand-full of people doing it on skates). Here’s a selection of the no less than 95 pics I’ve taken:

04: A detail of a huge plant wall right next to the park’s gate 3, the gate we usually use as it is the one closest to our apartment. It proved a good choice: Most sculptures are set up in the park’s north-east area, right behind gate 3. In the large version of the pic (as usual: click the thumbnail above) you’ll get a glimpse that all these sculpture are made of a mosaic of plants,…

08: …to form large 3D-sculptures like this traditional Chinese 3-door-gate, guarding the entrance to the Bonsai garden.

11: Carol grows horns 😉

15: Century Park is embedded in a residential area. All around are tall apartment buildings, not so much different from the one I am living in. But as we are living in “third row” you can’t see ours nor can we look into the park.

17: Many kids around, attracted by the sculptures, but called to order by parents or—as here—by the ‘big’ sister.

22: Chinese love posing for pictures…one of the many many examples.

(Also see this old article on Chinese photo-shooting ambitions!)

23: The “height” part of the huge Shanghai sculpture, motto: “Height and Speed in Shanghai” with “height” being symbolized by the Oriental Pearl Tower, which is done quite nicely with a combination of material and outline. “Speed” has been shown by a Transrapid speeding out of the right-hand side of the sculpture…not so nice.

26: One of the most detailed creations: A French basilika. But even the nicest building gets even nicer with the support of a sporty lady 😉

29: Past and present in Century Park, less than 300m apart of each other: Ancient Chinese-style pavillions in front of modern residential towers of Pudong.

30: This sculpture is probably just meant to be nice…at least I cannot identify anything real. But it is embedded in an orderly garden with stone ways, flowers and plants.

Behind it the huge Shanghai sculpture seen from the other side. You’ll find the Transrapid’s nose to the left, looking a bit like an iguana.

31/36: The same sculpture twice…why that given limited disk space? Well….it’s nice with all the colored flowers, although I fail to put any meaning to the actual sculpture in the back. But then…the right is the only showable picture of me. But also…Carol looked so nice on ‘her’ picture, that I could not leave that one out either. Conclusion: Show both! Judge yourself..that’s us!

37: A quite large installation of a traditional Chinese house door together with folk dancers in the foreground. Each sculpture, not only this one, is equipped with a text like you can see here in front. The texts, long, boasting lots of adverbs describing details and praising the achievements of the good old times before coming to a verb and the sentence’s end, have a fairly educative character. (I tried to make that sentence similar ;)) This one reads: “The exhibit with the adoption of distinctive architectural elements of the Guangzhou Xiguan culture, combining with the traditional Lion Dancing Show of the folk festival celebration, presents to the viewers a spectacle of full-bodied Xiguan flavor.”

40: And now for something completely different: Not a representation of anything real, but just garden design at its best.

42: The Belgian exhibit. Don’t know what that shall tell us. Unfortunately, the crab at the horse’s heels is not on this pic. The skater in front is not part of the exhibition. 😉

43: Christianity comes to China…and the people turn away 😉 The Brazilian part of the show.

44: Forgot what that is exactly about. But comes from one of China’s inner provinces and refers back to very very ancient times of ghost worshipping.

46: Just nice and very Chinese.

48: The way to Expo 2010. You cannot miss how proud Shanghai is to host the world exhibition: It is evident at any larger festival in the city. Most people actually looked the other way through these larger-and-larger circles. I found this way more interesting.

50: Which country represents this? Hm? C’m’on…yeah…Marlboro Country! Unbelievable but true: The USA really set up a muddy site with horses and cowboys, who catch cattle. And they are the only ones using special effects (for the smoke constantly pouring out of the mud). But it proved to be attractive: People took pictures over pictures. Including me…

58: Back to the more ‘clean’ Chinese educative installations…

59: The Hongkong donation: Dolphins. Anyone can tell me what Hongkong has to do with Dolphins? The little boy neither…he was fed up with all the shooting anyway, but his mother did not get tired setting him in pose.

70: One of the best and most creative: Canada has an entire Jazz band on display, including ‘live’ (on tape) music from loudspeakers within the installation.

72: We haven’t figured out what kind of bears these are…probably some of these rare Ice-Flower Bears. But soooooo cute!

Entirely unrelated to Mosaiculture:

73: Late afternoon atmoshpere at the Great Lake’s great promenade.

85: Evening atmosphere across the lake, now from the other side. The weather was as clear as to be able to see the Oriental Pearl Tower. (You see it? The tall needle in the picture’s very center.) Well, ok, it’s less than 10 kilometers away, but through the Shanghai air that’s usually too far a distance to see.

86: I know that’s a cultural thing…but I forgot for what. The mask in the back is one out of a group of three.

92: That’s a cool one, isn’t it? I would have guessed it is an Australian or New Zealand donation…..but wrong! It is given by Shanghai’s Xuhui district! That district is known for its huge shopping malls. Why should you tuck your head into sand there…? One of the mysteries of life…

Categories: Shanghai

Originally Created: 09/23/2006 04:30:56 PM
Last Edited: 09/24/2006