Going, greeting, meeting, shooting and enjoying
In our search for information about new waterlily varieties, caring and loving of waterlilies and lotuses we quickly ended up on the IWGS website.
When we first heard about the IWGS 2011 symposium in China we really didn’t know what to expect. Although there was information available about past symposiums, going to China for the first time and attending for the first time such a meeting of watergardeners would be a big step for us.
So we carefully started informing ourselves via mail about this event. The way the IWGS Executive Director Larry Nau answered our questions we became more and more interested and determined. Yes, we will attend this symposium!
What a welcome
Being welcomed at the QingDao airport by young enthousiastics, we allready felt like VIP’s. Who were we to know this was only the beginning. As soon as we got on the bus to the hotel the difference between China and our little country Belgium became very clear. The people, the buildings, the traffic! We didn’t know where to look first.
Arriving at the hotel we met a bunch of very enthousiastic Chinese volunteers, who would guide, summon and entertain us during our stay in Qingdao.
Allready at the lounge of the hotel Larry Nau was waiting to greet all of the attendees and it was nice to finally be able to meet the person we’ve corresponded with for several months. He introduced us to the very friendly attendees from Thailand: Chukiatman Primlarp, Songpanich Pairat and Puripunyavanich Vichai and of course Dr. Nopchai Chansilpa.
First learning: gardeners like to grow things
A little later we had the pleasure to meet Chris and Denise Cotterill from the United Kingdom and Nola, Michael and Mathew Fenech from Australia. The joke (refering to the beards of several attendees) of the gardeners who like to grow things set the tone for the rest of this event.
Sneak peak into Chinese Waterlily World
Although nothing specific was planned for our first day in QingDao, Larry soon understood we were keen on allready visiting the Chinese Waterlily World. We tried three taxis to drive us up there with no luck, so Larry arranged for us the personal driver of the hotel manager to take us there.
Arriving at Chinese Waterlily World we had the chance to meet Ling Leong who kindly invited us on a tour concerning the tropical wood used for the gate. As we had only one hour we kindly turned this down and focussed on the waterlily and lotus ponds. We were too overwelmed by al these magnificent waterlilies and lotuses that we returned to the hotel knowing that we could continue our visit at Chinese Waterlily World the next day. Back at the hotel we met another European attendee, Mr. Jörg Petrowsky
At dinner we sat with Nola, Michael and Mathew Fenech from Australia. Allready we were given plenty of tips on watergardening and heard entertaining stories.
And now the official opening of Chinese Waterlily World
The next day, we went back to Chinese Waterlily World, this time with more than 160 attendees and accompanied by a police escort guiding us through Qingdao’s rush hour traffic. Today was the official opening and there were balloons, speeches and music. And a mega photoshoot of all attendees.
Also there were thousands of flowers beside the entry lane that weren’t there the day before when we left at 16.30h. Amazing what is possible in China in such a short time! We thought we had seen a lot the day before, but were amazed by the many watergardens we didn’t even got to the first day. This place is really like a watergardenheaven on earth!
This is one of those moments you donâ’t notice the people around you, you’re to busy trying to see all the flowers and still I don’t think we’ve seen them all! Tip: if you want to visit Chinese Waterlily World, go there early and foresee at least 3-4 hours.
Belgians are everywhere.
Afterwards we had the pleasure of tasting the wonderful waterlily tea we received as a welcome gift on the first day of our arrival. This pause gave us the oppertunity to get to know other attendees, so we found somebody who’s ancesters are from Belgium, a small town called Kortrijk to be specific, Mister David Curtright, who thought me a lot on gardening, but also amused us with his political, economical and ecological point of view. Yes, American gardeners with or without beards have the same interests and concerns as we do. So whenever you’re in Belgium, Mr. Curtright, let us know and we will take you to Kortrijk 🙂
And with this knowledge we went on the bus to see some more lotuses, growing in a lake; not so overwelming as Chinese Waterlily World, but still quite impressive for Belgians who only find nuphar growing in the wild.
We also went to the Qingdao flower market and the Licun River Wetland. We unfortunatly didn’t make it to the Golden Carp Shop.
Toasting and talking during the welcome banquet
Then it was time to freshen up and put on your best clothes for the welcome dinner, held by the Qingdao Municipal People’s Government. And what a dinner it was, it felt like being at a wedding only this time we didn’t have to bring a gift. We also learned Chinese are picking up drinking wine during dinner and we toasted with a lot of the Chinese attendees during the different courses.
The food was great, the atmosphere relaxed and the music nice. We had the pleasure to have people from the United Kingdom (Chris and Denise Cotterill and James Allison), India (Subir Ghosh) and New Zealand (Malcolm and Dael Wright) at our table. The biggest issue was of course the Chinese Waterlily World, we kept on talking until all the other tables were allready cleared and set aside and so we figured it was time to go?
Time to get serious, the Symposium’s Academic seminar (and drinks afterwards).
We found ourselves between James Allison and Walter Pagels to follow this seminar. I was worried it would have been to technical for newbies like us, it was intense but still understandable and the printed version of the lectures made it a lot easier to follow.
We learned Chinese scholars are working hard on DNA barcoding of Chinese Lotus species and studying breeding and cultivation techniques. With all these new insights and new varieties popping up, the effort of Mr. Tian Daike to setup a Nelumbo registration database is a very interesting process. Just like our American friends who were eager to find out how Chinese varieties would behave outside of China, we hope this database will also keep track of how varieties in worser climates (as e.g. Belgium) evolve.
Trying to comprehend and place all this we went to the bar to talk everything through with James Allison, David Curtright, Paul Lancaster and Margaret Vita accompanied by Qingdao’s TsingTao Beer and great wine.
Raining in QingDao and a lunch stop impossible to forget
On our last day in Qingdao we weren’t able to see the Laoshan Mountain as foreseen (due to bad weather), but we did see the Polar Ocean World instead. Yep, we got treated to a dolphin show in China:-)
Lunch that day was also pretty special, we were welcomed by two huge golden dragons, thousands of rose leaves and many many chinese drums. Once again we felt like very very important persons. Qingdao really honoured us with all possible regards and alone for that already stole our heart. During this lunch we had the pleasure to meet two attendees from Mexico, Porfirio and Beatriz Suarez who also gave me a lot of tips for growing lotus.
After lunch, we visited the Qingdao Beer factory. Finally something we might know more about than the Chinese and other attendees! Coming from a country where every little town has i’s own beer. (even our very own hometown Grembergen has its own beer: vicaris)
IWGS Award Winners Banquet
This evening there was another banket, the award winners banket. We had the pleasure to sit at the table with the Australian delegation, Tony, Lesmona, Paul and Margaret. Where Tony could not resist telling me how beautiful and big the Victorias at his place were, knowing that in Belgium it is not that easy to have Victoria at all! I’m still waiting for a picture to prove this mister Debrincat! We again received lots of tips of how to breed the waterlilies and lotuses and often thougt we should have brought a digital recorder, because the amount of information gained was to much to remember it all. But we still tried to get as much as possible.
After the award ceremony we received video footage of the opening ceremony and the seminar. This evening accompanied by beautiful live music, yes a Chinese lounge band playing really good cover version in an impeccable English. Again a nice evening, a little bit overshadowed by the fact we needed to say goodbye to our young Chinese volunteers (thank you for all your enthousiastic watching over us and keep up your English), all the Chinese attendees, Ling Leong, the people from Thailand and the Fenechs!
From Qingdao to Beijing in a slow speed train.
The next morning we were off to the post-tour to Beijing and i have to say it was the very first time we saw a blue sky in Qingdao! Because of a recent high speed train crash, we took the slower speed train (only 250 km/h max speed :-)) to Beijing instead of the foreseen high speed train. Stil, this slower version was still rushing through 800 km of China’s inland in about 5 hours. During this trip we had the company of Jim Purcell. One of the few persons we didn’t had the chance to talk to before. But that wasn’t a problem we had 5 hours to catch up and we sure did! Mr. figurehead does know how to entertain and in the mean time informing us on how to grow tropical waterlilies and lotusses effectively and trying to convince us of the benefits of tropical waterlilies in colder climates.
Great Wall, great friends and a great IWGS symposium
During the Post Beijing tour we had the chance to get to know all the other non-Chinese attendees spending hours in the busses taking us to the Forbidden City, Tien An Men square, the Summer Palace, in restaurants, hotels, bars! At the end of the Beijing tour it almost felt like leaving friends. It was a wonderful journey, we received more information than we could dream of and we felt like being among old friends.
Visiting China for the first time and not finding the Great Wall the biggest event of your journey? I think IWGS did a hell of a good job!
A big thanks to Larry for setting this all up and all attendees who made us Belgian newbies feel welcome from the beginning.
More pictures