Wanshi (10 Thousand Stone) Botanical Garden

Wanshi Hill is a natural landscape of lakes and mountains. More than 4,000 species of tropical and subtropical plants have been introduced and domesticated here. Lush and green, the garden is really a "Green Museum" and "City Garden".

The major scenic spots around are Wanshi Botanical Garden, Wanshilian Temple, Tipsy Fairy Rock, Taiping Rock, Tiger Brook Rock and Elephant Trunk Peak.

Located on the north Lion Hill of southeast Xiamen's urban district, Wanshi Botanical Garden is a unique combination of park and botanical garden. With historic remains scattered about, this place has been a scenic spot for tourists since ancient times. Xue Qifeng, a famous scholar of early Qing Dynasty, praised it in one of his poems like this—"Hills and rocks combine all the views and the garden has been claiming unparalleled wonder through the ages". Wanshi Botanical Garden heads the list of Xiamen eight views by holding five of them. There are also nearly 100 stone inscriptions.

The year 1952 saw the construction of Wanshi Rock Reservoir around which the Botanical Garden was extended. More than 20 plant plots, flower nurseries and display rooms have been classified. They are specializing in palm, bamboo, orchid, potted landscape and medicinal plants, etc. Tens of thousands of tropical and subtropical plants are cultivated there. It is wellknown throughout the world for its fruitful scientific research.

Wanshilian Temple was built during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of late Qing Dynasty and was rebuilt by Hou Shilang of Jinghai. Additional renovations were made in recent years. On the two sides of the mountain gate, there is a pair of antithetical couplets written by a Great Master Hongyi for an abbot named Huiquan. The Great Hall of the Buddha, meditation abodes and monks' rooms form a delightful contrast with those high giant rocks. Quiet and elegant, the temple reminds one of a fairyland with the help of a gurgling stream below the Haizeng Bridge in front of the temple.

In the west part of the garden lies the Tipsy Fairy Rock, Sweet Spring Cave, Tianjie Temple and other sceneries. Tianjie Temple occupies a high position and descends down. Its famous morning bell can be heard far and near and was listed among the eight views of Xiamen—"Bell Tinkling at dawn from the Heaven Border." There are numerous stone inscriptions carved in the cliffs behind the temple and among which the one engraved before the Long Howling Cave during the reign of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty is the most valuable .

This piece of Poem Wall has another name of "Smiling Rock in Peace" which is also among the eight views of Xiamen. There has been a saying "The things that can make one smile and happy can not be expressed". It is personified and then spares more room for thought. Here is also the place where Zhen Chenggong used to read.

At "Tiger Brook and the Moon Light"-one of the eight views of Xiamen, with rocks densely covering the valley and ancient banyans entrenching everywhere, a naturally marvelous and perilous sight is thus presented. In the evening of the 15th of every lunar month, the grand moon is hanging high above, shining over the arhat clay sculptures and the clay tiger set in the cave. The shadow fluctuates as the light twinklesand the clay tiger seems to come back to life. When it is the mid-autumn festival night, visitors exceeding ten thousand strive to be the first to enjoy the sight of the wonderful moon.

During the reign of Emperor Wanli, Lin Maoshi, a well-known bachelor, cut a hole in the rock and built a stone room named "Lincen Cave" in it. To the north of Wanshilian Temple are such views as "Carp Magic", "Tiger Teeth Cave", "Jia Tian Jing" (a path placing the sky in between two huge rocks), "One-line Heaven" and "Flying Whale Rock". Each of them got their name from their similarity in form. We find another gigantic rock near the river bank, this one carved with two Chinese characters "Lock Clouds". It is said that this is the place where Zhen Chenggong killed his second cousin, Zhen Lian.