Ping Shui Encounter Ecological Garden: Rainbow Slide, Farm Food… Family Trip Highlights
Ping Shui is an important node on the path of Zhejiang's Tang Dynasty poetry, with approximately 1500 ancient poems related to Ping Shui currently existing. As a 'local resident,' the famous Song Dynasty patriot poet Lu You, who also had a fondness for food, frequently stayed at Wuna Temple and Ya Ye Creek in Ping Shui, leaving nearly a hundred poems here. This small trip with me brings us to Ping Shui Encounter Ecological Garden, located in Meiyuan Village, Ping Shui Town. On the day of our visit, a 'Lu You Poetry Feast' and 'Ping Shui One Table Head' competition were being held in the park.
Ping Shui Encounter Ecological Garden project has a total land area of one phase of 65 acres and two phases of 110 acres. As soon as you enter the ecological garden, you are immediately given a sense of quiet beauty of rural and pastoral scenery. General Manager Ye Gangliang introduced that they utilized the abandoned animal husbandry houses and natural mountains, water, fields, gardens, and forests here, through a comprehensive analysis and collation of ecological environment, humanities and history, current situation resources, cultural context, topography and landform, to create a project that integrates 'ecological rural experience, leisure tourism sightseeing, vacation health and residence' functions.
The Rainbow Slide is a popular project here, which I had only seen in my friends' circles before. Seeing the 'real thing', it's like a wave of girlish hearts flooded, and I couldn't resist opening self-photography mode. The Rainbow Slide is about 120 meters long, with one single-person slide and one double-person slide, with a drop of nearly 18 meters. It's the first slide project introduced to Shaoxing. From a distance, it's beautiful. When you get closer, you feel a little apprehensive and hesitate for a long time before making up your mind to sit down. When you arrive at the top of the slide, staff help you get on the air cushion and push you down, and 'free flying' mode begins. There are two relatively steep slopes in the middle, which adds to the thrill of sliding, and when you slide from the top, it takes less than 20 seconds, from the initial fear and excitement to the desire to play again – this is the charm of this popular project.
In the parent-child farming area, you can bring your children to experience the joy of farming. 'Rising with the sun to work, setting with the sun to rest' – a traditional Chinese lifestyle of 'daybreak work, sunset rest' – is gradually being forgotten. More and more urban children can hardly distinguish between wheat seedlings and green plants. The parent-child farming experience helps children understand crops and feel the hardship of 'working with the hoe at noon, sweating on the soil beneath the seedlings.' Experiencing every grain of rice and every vegetable's harvest allows children to appreciate the fruits of labor.
The ecological garden also has a children's playground, with basic facilities such as air mattresses, climbing frames, and slides. Small children can play here for an afternoon without boredom. Karting and archery are also suitable for adults to relax in the afternoon. Of course, you can also have self-catering barbecues, firewood stoves, parent-child farming, and residential experiences here. The park has 14 characteristic courtyards named 'Rural Residence', divided into 4 different antique and elegant styles, all of which are now open to the public.
Agricultural cuisine is also a major feature of Ping Shui Encounter Ecological Garden. The netizens enjoyed a feast. On that day, 12 farm owners from all towns came on stage to showcase their 'signature dishes', such as rice-wrapped pork, tea leaf-roasted river shrimp, Changle Lake double fresh, and Xiao Shunjiang big fish head. The competition site was fragrant. The Lu You Poetry Feast combined Lu You's poems about food made in Ping Shui with local Ping Shui specialties, selecting a 'table head' with the most characteristic Ping Shui food for visitors to taste. Sitting in the courtyard's wooden house, tasting the poetic 'table head' farmhouse cuisine, breathing in the air full of ecological factors, is indeed a pleasure.
Why not bring your family to a similar ecological garden this spring, temporarily leaving urban life behind, spending time with mountains and birds, and finding the 'home' you've been missing in the countryside's food and scenery?
