Come see the lotus flowers at Zhongshan Park in Qingdao!

50 Ways to Explore Zhongshan Park in Qingdao (2/50): Four Ponds for Lotus Appreciation ‼️Why is there a tradition of admiring lotus flowers at Zhongshan Park? 📣During the late Qing Dynasty, while Sun Yat-sen was engaged in revolutionary activities in Japan, he received significant support from his Japanese landlord, Tanaka Takashi. In May 1918, during a visit to Japan, Sun Yat-sen presented four lotus seeds, symbolizing pure friendship, to Tanaka Takashi as a token of gratitude for his support of the Chinese revolution. After Tanaka Takashi's passing, his descendants entrusted these four lotus seeds to the Japanese "Dr. Lotus," Ohga Ichiro, for cultivation. The lotus variety was named "Sun Wen Lotus." 📣In 1995, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Qingdao and Shimonoseki, Japan, the president of the Shimonoseki Japan-China Friendship Association, Kaneda Mitsuo, gifted the "Sun Wen Lotus" to Qingdao. It was planted in a pond within Zhongshan Park, which was subsequently renamed the Sun Wen Lotus Pond. 📣The "Sun Wen Lotus" is a single-petal lotus variety with around 21 petals, exhibiting a delicate pink hue resembling an inverted bell. (Figure 4) ❤️There are four lotus-viewing ponds in Zhongshan Park, from north to south: 1️⃣Small West Lake—Admire lotus flowers, water lilies, fish, and common moorhens. 2️⃣Sun Wen Lotus Pond—Appreciate the Sun Wen Lotus and savor the historical and cultural significance. 3️⃣New Water Surface—Enjoy water lilies, black swans, and the metasequoia forest. 4️⃣Small Water Surface—Admire water lilies (primarily white water lilies). (Locations are marked in Figure 18) 🧡Confused about the difference between lotus, sacred lotus, and water lilies? 🅰️Lotus, belonging to the Nelumbonaceae family and Nelumbo genus, is a common name for the two species "sacred lotus" and "American lotus," as well as numerous cultivated varieties. Therefore, "lotus" generally refers to the sacred lotus. 🅱️Water lilies belong to the Nymphaeaceae family and Nymphaea genus. Thus, water lilies have a distinct name and are not referred to as lotus. 🅰️Lotus plants have both emergent and floating leaves, with most extending above the water surface and having complete, undamaged leaves. They are emergent aquatic plants. 🅱️Water lily leaves all lie flat on the water surface, are small, and have notches. They are floating aquatic plants. 🅰️Lotus flowers rise above the water, exhibiting a more expansive posture with various shapes like bowl-shaped, cup-shaped, spherical, saucer-shaped, and dancing. 🅱️Water lilies have both floating and emergent varieties, with common flower shapes being star-shaped and cup-shaped. They are smaller than lotus flowers and have slender, pointed petals. 🅰️Lotus flowers bloom during the day and close at night. 🅱️Some water lily varieties bloom during the day and close at night, while others bloom at night and close during the day. The specific closing time depends on the geographical location. ❗️Any plant with lotus roots and seedpods is a lotus (sacred lotus). Water lilies do not have these features. ㊙️Tips for lotus appreciation: ✅The blooming times of different lotus varieties vary slightly, allowing you to see different varieties in bloom from late June to early August. ✅Rainy days offer a unique beauty, capturing raindrops swirling on lotus leaves. When a leaf is full of water, it tilts, pouring the water onto a lower leaf. The writer Shi Hang once described this scene as "toasting and exchanging cups," which I find apt.