Snow track

Author: Huang Miaozi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: "Miao Laohan Chatting" is a selected collection of short essays and sketches by the author since the 1970s. Originally intended for "Snow Mud Claws," it documents the author's footprints across the Jiangnan, Europe, America, Australia, and Africa. The travels and observations, thoughts and reflections, are recorded as they come, sometimes wandering between reality and history, or reminiscing about scenes and people, with travel notes actually being a tribute to those dear to the heart. Or, admiring art by observing objects, lost in the beauty of nature and artistic works. After tea and dinner, accompanying the author on a "travel" across five continents and four seas, both ancient and modern, is also a kind of enjoyment.
Haihai Park: Lotus Blooms in Beihai Park
The lotuses in Beihai Park are in full bloom, with crowds of visitors, and the rental boats are constantly busy. The regulations specify two types of boats: three-person and five-person. Twenty years ago, the hourly rental for boats was 3 or 5 yuan. Those who didn’t rent boats could stroll along the shore or sit on benches by the lake, still enjoying the fragrance of lotuses spreading for miles and the lush green fields. The lotuses in Beihai Park are mostly white, with jade petals and white towers towering in the distance, creating a harmonious scene. Red lotuses are less common, but they stand out even more among the white ones. The boats don’t need to get close to the lotus clusters; even from a distance, the sweet fragrance is overwhelming. If the boat moves closer to the lotuses, you’ll find that the long-stemmed flowers and leaves are much taller than the people on the boat. Although bamboo stakes have been used to mark off the lotus area to prevent damage, a gentle breeze still makes the swaying flowers and leaves even more captivating up close than from afar.
As a child, I read Zhou Lianxi’s "On Loving Lotus," which includes the line, "One may admire it from afar but not touch it intimately." Though I don’t hold Zhou Lianxi, a Song Dynasty Confucian scholar, responsible for this, I always felt the phrase had a bit of a "headscarf" air.
Visiting lotuses in Beihai Park is best in the morning. The park opens at 6 a.m., when there are fewer people and the air is fresher. The lotuses still carry the charm of dew and mist, and the fragrance is even more ethereal. As for the saying that the lotuses in the Xiequ Garden of the Summer Palace are most beautiful at night, it’s because the gardens and pavilions provide a backdrop, evoking the realm of Lin Daiyu’s "Cold Pond Crossing with a Crane’s Shadow, Cold Moon Burying a Poet’s Soul." Beihai Park, however, is most enchanting after rain in the morning, as it is more spacious and the faint morning light creates a misty haze, reminiscent of the poetic realm of the "Lotus Dance" performed by the Chinese Art Troupe in New York.
Beihai Park had been a "forbidden zone" for the "Gang of Four" for a decade. When Beijing people finally saw the lotuses in Beihai Park again in the summer of the late 1970s, it wasn’t surprising that even under the scorching noon sun, crowds continued to visit. But this time, it was a different kind of feeling in their hearts.