Lianshuan Park

Lianshuanhan Park is a large park in the center of Shenzhen, most famous because it has a statue of Deng Xioping, the Chinese leader, who laid the ground work for the economic policies that made Shenzhen an economic powerhouse.

It’s also a park where people go with their children and see some greenery in this very dense and very concrete city. I stumbled onto a strange event that I don’t quite understand. It involved groups of children about 4 years old who were in uniforms, who, after a number of rah-rah activites by some people on a platform, marched across a field. Or at least, they marched as well as 4 year olds march. Strangely, two of the marching tunes were The Yellow Rose of Texas, and the Lone Ranger theme.

Marching Children

Then I decided to climb to the top of the “hill” to see the statue of Deng Xioping. I followed a crowd of mothers and grandmothers with strollers, thinking to myself that I was relieved that it was going to be an easy climb. What I didn’t know was that they were all going to bail out at a very nice little food stand part way up. Just after that, the climb got a bit steeper. . I valiantly climbed for a bit, took a break, climbed some more, took a break, and finally concluded that this hill was a bit too steep for me. So here’s what I would have seen.

On my way out, I enjoyed the sunlight filtering through lanterns. They were beautiful against the dark green leaves of the trees.

More pictures here.