Page 15 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2013Q3

Shangshi Chinese Viewing Stones

2013 International Bonsai Convention
in Yangzhou, China

Text and Photos by Gudrun Benz, Germany

Top; Malachite
Bottom; Fengli, animal-shaped
stones, Panda bears. Gobi desert.
Golden Award

ith an area of 9.6 million square kilome-
ters, China is the fourth largest coun-
try in the world and one of the most
populous nations on earth with about
W1.3 billion people. But it is also a land
of beauty. Yangzhou is one of its oldest cities which
history goes back about 2500 years. It is located in
Jiangsu Province and thanks to its position on the
Grand Canal it developed into a prosperous city. It
is famous for its gardens created by merchants who
made their fortune in salt and silk. The two key attrac-
tions of the city is the Slender West Lake and Daming
Si with the nine-story pagoda Xiling, a temple built al-
ready in the fifth century in the northwestern suburbs
of Yangzhou. Nowadays, Yangzhou is a lively modern
city with a population of 4.6 million people.
It was a great opportunity for BCI that the Yangzhou
Municipal Government and the Chinese Society of
Landscape Architecture, Flower Bonsai & Artistic
Stone Branch successfully bid for the 2013 BCI con-
vention. Yangzhou is not only famous for its land-
scaping and poetic painting but also for penjing. In
2009, the Yangzhou Penjing Museum was opened. It
is located in Wan Hua Garden of Slender West Lake
and houses many traditional forms of penjing trees
and water-and-land penjing. Therefore it is ideal as a
bonsai convention venue.
The focus of the 2013 convention was on penjing.
More than 200 penjing trees and water- and land-
penjing were shown at the outdoor exhibition area of
Songjiacheng Scenic Spot in Slender West Lake Sce-
nic Area. About 100 viewing stones were exhibited
in a room in the building called “Moon City” within
the same area. Shangshi are modern Chinese Viewing
stones. The convention exhibition was an invitational

July/August/September 2013 | BCI | 13