Spring Blooms in Ritan Park:

T. S. Eliot's acid poetic commentary on modern life, “Wasteland”, begins with the line “April is the cruelest month”. I doubt if Mr. Eliot ever set foot in Beijing during April (四月). Far from being the “cruelest month”, April is one of the best times to be in the capital. The frigid cold of winter has finally ended, while the stifling heat of summer is still another month or two away.

For a brief period, Beijing's weather is actually quite pleasant. To be sure, the occasional sandstorm, or shachenbao (沙尘暴), does blow through the city; however, after having lived here now for three years, I think all those “sandstorm” stories are somewhat exaggerated! But most of the time it's pleasantly warm or comfortably cool and we get quite a few clear “blue sky” (晴天) days. And best of all, the trees and flowers all begin blooming (树和花都开花了) in late March. Thus through the first half of April, Beijing's parks are ablaze with color.

Ritan Park is one of the best places to look at and take photos of all this spring color. The prettiest (最漂亮的) blooms are in the park's southeast corner. The pair of photos at the top of the post were shot there 2-3 weeks ago. The bush with the yellow color is forsythia, and this plant is native to China and Korea. The Chinese call it “Yingchunhua” (迎春花), which means “Welcoming Spring Flower”. The tree with the white blossoms is a Magnolia Dudenta, and the Chinese call this tree a “Baiyulan” (白玉兰), or “White Jade Orchid”. When this tree is blooming, that name is certainly more appropriate.

The deep pink or scarlet colored bush in the top photos is some kind of flowering peach. The juxtaposition between it and the forsythia is nothing short of spectacular. And anyone who walks up the small hill in the park's center will be able to see more beautiful flowers. The first photo below is a shot of that hill and the pavilion on its top; the second photo is a shot of these flowers with the pavilion in the background.

The rest of the park also has some nice blooms, though not as spectacular as the ones in the southeast corner or up on hill. There's a photo below.

The gate in the photo above provides a clue as to the main function of the park in Old China, which was to serve as the Temple of the Sun. The “Ri” (日) in the park's name means “sun”, while “tan” (坛) is one of many Chinese words for “temple”. This park, along with four others—Zhongshan, now named after the founder of Republican China, Sun Zhongshan (孙中山) (中山), Ditan (Temple of the Earth) (地坛), Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) (天坛), and Yuetan (Temple of the Moon) (月坛)—are located at Beijing's cardinal points. Ritan, Ditan, Yuetan, and Tiantan are respectively located at the city's east, north, west, and south points, while Zhongshan is at the center, next to the Forbidden City (故宫).

Thus Ritan Park used to be a place where the Emperor (皇帝) carried out solemn religious ceremonies. But now it is a place for the residents of the capital to relax and play. More on that in my next post!

The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.

四月 (si4yue4). Since China's calendar used to be a lunar calendar, the character for “month”, “月”, also means “moon” in Mandarin. In marked contrast to English and most other Western languages, Mandarin doesn't have specific names for each month. April is literally “fourth month”; the same goes for the other months. Thus January is “first month”, or “一月” and so on.
沙尘暴 (sha1chen2bao4). “沙” means “sand”, “尘” means “dirt/dust”, and “暴” in this context means “storm”. It can also mean “violent/violence”.
晴天 (qing2tian1). This literally means “clear (晴) day/sky (天)”.
树和花都开花了 (shu4he2hua1dou1kai1hua1le5). The word order here is pretty much the same as it is in English: “树 (trees) 和 (and) 花 (flowers) 都 (all) 开 (a shortened form of begin, 开始 [kai1shi3]) 花了 (blooming). “花” can serve as both the verb “to bloom” and noun “bloom”, as well being the noun for “flower”.
最漂亮的 (zui4piao4liang5de5). “最” means “most”, while “漂亮的” is the Chinese word for pretty. The adjective is used for women and natural scenery, particulary landscape and plants.
故宫 (gu4gong1).
皇帝 (huang2di4).