park, parker, parkest

There are dozens of small public gardens in Fanling and Sheung Shui, but only one park: North District Park, which is located just northwest of Fanling Wai. I’d walked through this park before, but one day recently Paula and I were walking past the park, and I couldn’t help but notice several ‘interesting’ trees, so I decided to pay a visit last week in order to take a few photographs. These are presented in the order in which they were taken.

There is a large open paved area between Fanling Wai and the park, from where I took this photo of what I assume is the main entrance to the park, although there are other, less formal, entry points:

Immediately after passing under the entrance arch, I took this photo looking to the left:

There are nine benches in this image, which is a small fraction of the total number in the park, so there are plenty of opportunities to sit in quiet contemplation.

This is a view looking straight ahead from the entrance, which shows two of several gazebos here that have been built in traditional Chinese style:

This is a closer look at the gazebo on the left in the previous photo:

…and this is a view of a larger pavilion to the right:

The two men on the left are looking over a small ornamental lake.

Here are two views of the lake from that same position, first straight ahead:

…then to the right:

This one was taken as I walked around the lake to the left:

There is a small lotus pond to the left of the path here, fed by a small waterfall:

I’m not sure why the lotuses have been penned in, although my guess is that they would take over the entire pond if given the opportunity.

Paper bark trees are very common in Fanling—they line Sha Tau Kok Road, the main road out of Fanling to the east, for a start—so I couldn’t resist taking a photo of these three magnificent specimens:

The bark can easily be peeled off these trees, although I strongly counsel against doing so.

Another gazebo:

…and another view of the lake, looking back towards the point where my first photos of the lake were taken:

As you can see from the map (below), the park is split in two by So Kwun Po Road, but there is a convenient underpass connecting the two parts. There is also a cycle track here, and I’ve included this photo, which shows the way we’d been following whenever we cycled ‘out west’ (we used to follow the Drainage Services access road that runs alongside the Ng Tung River, but recent construction work there has made this option impractical):

The next six photos are general views of the trees in the area next to the village of So Kwun Po, which has its own entry points into the park:

I took the next photo to illustrate the large clump of aerial roots on the left of this tree:

This type of root starts as a thin tendril that draws moisture directly from the air, but when one finally reaches the ground, it rapidly thickens up and becomes woody, sending out its own roots into the soil, as this view of the same tree from the other side well illustrates:

The next photo shows these so-called ‘prop’ roots, ones that show no obvious differences if compared with regular branches, although they do stabilize the tree during typhoons:

Having photographed all the interesting trees in the extension of the park, it was time to return to the main park. The next photo shows the cycle track that we ride along now when heading ‘out west’ (coming towards the camera):

However, we don’t now continue along the cycle track in the first photo above. Instead, we turn left towards the underpass:

…and follow this cycle track:

This is because the other option involves negotiating a busy light-controlled road junction and a cycle track that runs next to Sheung Shui station. The pavement that runs alongside the cycle track here is invariably crowded with pedestrians walking to and from the station, who frequently step out onto the cycle track without checking to see whether it’s safe to do so. The cycle track in the previous photo does come to an end quite quickly, but a short but exciting ride through the narrow alleyways next to Fanling Wai leads to a flyover that crosses both the railway and the expressway. This carries just bike and foot traffic and is never busy!

By the way, you can see the entrance to the main park on the left of the previous photo.

Naturally, I took a different route on my way back through the main park, and I took this photo of a cluster of trees after a short distance:

I took two photos of the next group of trees, from slightly different angles:

My route through the park brought me to the top of a tiered seating area that implied an audience for some kind of performance. I took this photo from there:

The white pavilion here can also be seen across the water in the second of the photos of the lake above.

My final photo shows another large pavilion, the purpose of which I didn’t seek to find out:

And that was a brief walk through North District Park. I shall have to bring Paula next time, because I know she will like it. Meanwhile, this map provides some additional context:

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