Yangshuo-HangzhouOct 24, 2011
|
|
Map of Yuzi Paradise Park
"Living World Arena" by Ju Ming/Taiwan
Bob loves this sculpture
At the recommendation of our friends, we spent our last morning in Yangshuo at the Yuzi Paradise Sculpture Garden, outside of Guilin, created by Taiwanese entrepreneur Mr. Rhy-Chang Tsao in 1996. It is a 150 acre park with one of the Karst hills in the middle of it and many surrounding it. There are several lakes, a small indoor museum, a hotel, a private residence for Mr. Tsao, a café. workshop space and living quarters for visiting artists and over 100 outdoor sculptures. Since 1997, Yuzi Paradise has held 8 International Sculpture Symposia with 114 artists of 25 countries involved and created 114 outdoor monumental sculptures. Its aim is to encourage Chinese sculpture. Lisa had never been there before but it is definitely worth seeing.  The sculptures are strategically placed, some next to a lake to be reflected in the water, some in woods and others in the meadow. The small museum also has interesting exhibitions of artists-in-residence who have spent time there. The hotel is part of a prestigious chain, but it is unclear who might come to stay there. Bob fell in love with a sculpture called “Living World Arena” by a Taiwanese sculpture named Ju Ming. It consisted of several groupings of stylized Asian people from families to couples standing under an umbrella.  We could have spent more time there but we had to catch our flight. We took an afternoon 2 hour flight to Hangzhou where Susan was one of the 11 foreign guest speakers at the International Workshop on Biology of Fruit Quality. Her friend Ian Ferguson from New Zealand was one of the co-leaders. Professor Chen from the Hangzhou University was the other leader. It was pouring rain when we landed at 4:30 pm and because of the traffic, it took over two hours to drive from the airport to a fancy restaurant downtown where we were the guests of Professor Chen at one of those Chinese banquets with many, many courses, including all kinds of exotic food such as jelly fish and lots of shots of their rice brandy. Thank god my tummy trouble was over. We then had to drive another hour to the western part of the city to the 5-star hotel where the conference was being held. Bob was upset that we were so far away from the center of the city. However when it became clear that as part of Susan’s "entourage", our room was free for two nights, he was mollified. |
Advertisement 
|
