QiFeng Park

A Portuguese acquaintance told me about a local hike over breakfast. It is very local – the park borders the hotel.

I am stunned by how different this city is from the first time I was here. True, the velocity of change has slowed but it is still fast. It is amazing how so many millions of people’s lives have improved in the last 20 years. It is a time period that historians (and economists) will study for decades to come.

Anyway, I got out of work early and decided to take his advice. In full dork mode I went out to the park and started walking. Instead of doing the 5-mile flat route around the park, I decided to do the up and down in the middle. Fortunately it was not too hot (only 90 and the humidity was down to around 90 too).  3+ miles,  lot of huffing and puffing. The only downside was the mosquitoes.

There is a particular kind of tree here that is finishing its blooming period now. It has outrageously flourescent petals. The sun was setting and the angles were perfect. There was even a reflecting pond. I don’t have a bad camera but the intensity of the color just saturated every single photo I took no matter what settings I tried. I finally gave up and focused on some foreground bamboo instead. See below but it barely represents what it really looked like.