Craig and I really made a day of it on Saturday. Before we went to the Walled City, we braved the heat to visit Nan Lian Garden, and Chi Lin Nunnery. The temperature was in the mid thirties with very minimal cloud cover, so I may not have spent as much time peacefully contemplating things as I should have. But hey, it's free, and I live here now, so it's not like I can't go back when its cooler.
The gate to Nan Lian Garden
All the trees, plants, flowers, rocks, and, I suspect occasionally the dragonflies, are put just in the right place. The garden is built in the classical chinese style, with Tang Dynasty designs.
Rock gardens with atmospheric misters.
A lake, with a golden pagoda in the centre.
Golden pagoda. We couldn't get any closer than this though. I guess wiping the fingerprints off must be a bitch.
On the far side of the lake on the right there is a Tang style tea house. Unfortunately you could only go in if you were buying tea and dimsum, so we didn't go this time.
Though the garden is set in the middle of a forest of high rises, rivers of busy roads, it's quite peaceful inside. Because the garden was a joint project with the Chi Lin nunnery, the rules of the garden disallow any group photo taking, special occasion photos, loud noises and a host of other things in order to preserve the intended experience of harmony and silence in nature.
These beauties were just about everywhere, in other colours too. Some of the prettiest and largest dragonflies I've ever seen.
This is inside the nunnery. I didn't take too many pictures in here, because there were people praying and worshipping, and I didn't want to intrude on them.
So I took pictures of the water spitting dragon instead.
The main courtyard of Chi Lin. One day, when it's cooler I think we'll go back and spend more time wandering around here and Nan Lian.
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