Flower Festival Outing (by Sophia)

On Feb. 13, the first school day after the 2017 Chinese New Year holidays and winter break, the ETGBC held an outing to the Floriculture Experiment Center located not far from Yangmingshan National Park during the annual camellia show. At 2:00 p.m. more than 30 members, including some members' family and friends, gathered at the Center's entrance. As it was the first gathering after the spring festival, we exchanged cheerful greetings with each other. After a while, we divided into two groups and began a guided tour.

All the way we listened to the docent introducing a wide variety of plants in the park. Many of us showed much interest and raised many questions in response to him. Docent Dai especially introduced aquatic plants to us. He explained that the aquatic plants include four species: 1. submerged plants (沉水植物), such as Taiwan quillwort (臺灣水韭); 2. floating leaves of aquatic plants (浮葉植物), water lily (睡蓮); 3. floating aquatic plants (漂浮植物), duckweed (浮萍); 4. emergent plants (挺水植物), lotus and oriental cattail (香蒲; 水蠟燭). In addition, Mr. Dai shared his favorite view with us. He said when standing beside the aquatic pond at the end of a trail, one can have a vista of a green field with a trail flanked by trees. He highly recommended the public to enjoy the fresh air and amazing views in the park while getting away from the hustle and bustle of downtown area.

There was also time for us to take a close look at numerous species of camellia at the exhibition area. Visitors were amazed by an array of gorgeous camellias and took pictures of them.

Wrapping up the activity, we took group photos with different gestures instructed by Yvonne. We appreciate Miriam for proposing a thoughtful idea of arranging the flower-viewing outing ahead of Valentine' s Day, leaving us a lot of sweet memories.