A PARADISE FOR ALL
2 min readEast and west，Home is the best
Regarded as one of the top three private gardens”in today’s Zhuhai，this elaborately built garden is an architectural treasure that reflects both Tong Shao-yi’s highly developed aesthetics fostered by the man’s Chinese roots and the western part of his soul.
Hidden beneath layers of indigenous，exuberant flora nourished by the ample rain and constant humidity of southern China are thick smears of historical heaviness and solemnity. Tong s garden is a”hard”one that defies all the soft, feminine cliches of traditional, “Jiangnan style garden landscaping. The gnarled branches of the banyan trees seem to have been there since remote times presenting a vista that reminds the visitor of the fantastical Wizarding World of harry potter the aisle columns that havewatched a century tumultuously roll by still glisten with the tantalizing luster of an oyster.
The garden ‘s observatory, a two-story structure equipped with a sextant, was the only one of its kind in China at the time when it was constructed The garden’s other distinguished guests also included Edgar Snow and Mei Lanfang who planted a”beauty tree”.
The garden’s observatory, a two-story structure equipped with a sextant, was the only one of its kind in china at the time when it was constructed and must have taken the interplay of a western-influenced mind and soaring, adventurous spirit to include such a sci-fi element. It is not hard for the more sensitive among us to imagine how Tong Shao-yi preserved his sanity by steering his gaze and thoughts away from precarious political circles and fickle human relationship towards the starry sky for the ultimate answers.
