Exploring Jiangsu Garden Expo Park – The Final Chapter

Getting around: by car

Time of visit: May 2022

Attraction: Jiangsu Garden Expo Park

Address: near the northeast intersection of Husheng Road and Hufa Road, Jiangning District, Nanjing

Early summer, May – the weather was getting a touch warm. I woke from a short afternoon nap, took my time with a cup of coffee, watched the sunlight soften a little, and thought about heading out for a wander. The Garden Expo Park came to mind. It had opened to visitors a year ago, and an annual pass had let us return again and again – we’d grown fond of it, admiring it each time. A year slips by quickly, and the pass was about to expire. Every chance I got, I’d think: let’s go back and see what’s changed since last year. I parked the car by Xiping Gate.

Even on the walk from the car park to the gate, the profusion of flowers was striking.

High on the cliff face, layers of vegetation at different heights were dotted with pink blossoms amid all the green.

The bare rock made the flowers look even more delicate.

At the Xiping Gate ticket check of the Garden Expo Park.

After passing through, there’s a huge square. Two ways up the hillside: an elevator on one side, and broad steps on the other. Three giant characters – 园博园 (Garden Expo Park) – are carved into the exposed cliff, giving the whole place an air of grandeur.

The elevator took us to the hilltop. Massive blocks of stone are piled up, reinforcing the slope and creating a landscape. The planting on the slopes is carefully arranged – close-cropped greenery right by the rocks, mid-ground trees, and a higher screen of bamboo. Different heights, different shades of green, all designed for shape and colour. Overhead, red cable-car cabins glide through the sky, adding a full three-dimensional effect.

We followed the road hemmed in by rocks and continued into the park. Going round a bend in the hillside, the view suddenly opened up: nestled in the valley was the Time Art Valley section.

This area was once home to two cement factories. Following a design philosophy of ‘light intervention, heavy restoration’, the industrial character has been kept to the fullest. Towering chimneys reach into the clouds, circular clusters of concrete columns stand, and rusty pipes snake around. Every hour on the hour, a bell chimes, as if taking us back to that era of roaring machinery.

By the Xiping Gate small train station, a little train was waiting. This used to be the cement factory’s quarry. Narrow-gauge trains once ran back and forth daily between the China Cement Plant and the limestone mines at Kongshan in Hushan Village, Tangshan, hauling stone. When the factory shut down, the narrow-gauge railway retired from its industrial life. But the Garden Expo Park gave it a second life. The heritage line was preserved, and the narrow gauge was turned into a scenic tourist route. We posed for countless photos against the backdrop of the rails and the vintage train.

I was just about to get closer to this old engine when it gave a sudden whistle – it was pulling out.

With a long “woo-woo” the little train slowly set off, carrying visitors on a gentle ride through the lovely park.

A romantic encounter with the evening primroses and azaleas lining the track.

The winding rails, swaying flowers, and retro train – the scene is like a healing oil painting. If you strolled here with someone you love, moments like this would surely freeze in your heart.

Even walking alone, the beauty and serenity are intoxicating.

The tall chimneys and factory buildings are deliberate industrial remnants preserved during the park’s construction, meant to keep history alive. The towering steel structure beside the chimneys has been turned into a clock tower called “Nanjing Time,” expressing a green philosophy of “remembering the past, cherishing the present, and looking forward to the future” – a dialogue between man and nature, history and today. In front of this industrial relic is a large green square with a mirror pool.

We headed straight to the clusters of cement silos at the far west end; one now houses a Librairie Avant-Garde. Atop the cold concrete silos, trees have been planted. The swaying treetops blend the silos cleverly into their surroundings, creating a striking visual effect. “Librairie Avant-Garde” is written across the huge grey silo body – a chain bookstore known as “China’s most beautiful bookshop.”

Stepping inside, the seemingly plain silo interior turned out to be a world apart.

The silo we were in was originally a material crushing bin for the cement plant; it has been transformed into a mesmerising book-lover’s paradise, given a whole new lease of life. Rows of bookshelves and books stretch all the way to the top – the visual impact is breathtaking. When you stand in this circular space and look up, you connect spirit, books, nature, and the sky.

As the Avant-Garde motto goes: “Strangers on the earth,” it captures a sense of life’s vastness within the universe.

Since it’s a bookshop, the main focus is, of course, books. The shelves here are specially designed to fit the building’s shape – spiral shelves packed with all kinds of books, one volume after another, tier after tier…

“Silo” describes the shape. The circular perspective gives a feeling of endless extension, perfectly matching how books guide people into boundless spiritual spaces.

The silo bookshop has a clever design touch – the use of mirrors. Many mirrors inside the round silo create a dizzying, dreamlike effect. The combination of the circular form and mirrored surfaces expands the space, making the limited area feel infinite. It conjures intriguing illusions. We lingered there, lost in a daydream of books, poetry, and self.

Inside the circular silo, glass, mirrors, lighting, and the round shape create a sense of intertwining reality and illusion.

The milky white interior walls contrast sharply with the books and shelves encircling them. The white base, large mirrors set at many angles, and soft lights between the shelves give the space a star-studded, heavenly feel.

Every corner of the shop has been carefully arranged with books.

The mirror effect produces amusing results when people are in it.

From one angle you see several versions of yourself, several of others – sometimes you stop and try to tell real from illusion.

Books spiral up the walls towards the top. The silo seems to have regained immense energy, bursting through the roof and giving birth to new life.

The long spiral staircase is particularly eye-catching. The décor is predominantly white, with famous lines of poetry hung beside the stairs – the literary vibe is strong, and it’s wonderfully photogenic.

The spiral staircase follows the curve of the silo.

Daylight pours down through the open top ring of each silo, sliding down the inner wall and creating shifting patterns of light and shadow – a charm all its own.

Going down the spiral stairs to the bottom, you reach the Avant-Garde’s cultural and creative goods area. In the centre is a round display stand, behind which a window looks out onto the outside world, creating a sense of connection between inside and out.

Because it’s a silo, all the displays and cabinets are round or curved; the smooth lines give the bookshop a wonderfully fresh feel.

Outside the silo, a red postbox stands next to a yellow Avant-Garde logo. Inside it’s white; outside, concrete grey – both are extremely minimalist and clean. “White” is not just a colour; it represents a brand-new life and an infinite spiritual world. Perhaps the hope was that the silo would be “reborn as white.” That’s how a dreamlike “newness” was built inside the once rough, cold concrete.

Coming back out, the silos grouped together look especially imposing. These silos served the cement plant through nearly a hundred years of mining. There were once huge pits, roaring machinery, clouds of dust… then, quiet returned. Now, at last, a fresh soul has moved in – “the world’s most beautiful book silo.”

We gazed out over the open square.

And then back to the cluster of buildings that once housed the Black Horse World Comics Museum.

Now it’s being upgraded and renovated. When I visited last May, it was a fun museum, said to be the world’s first comics museum. The exhibition back then was rich in content, interesting and informative.

Rows of silo groups. Once places to allocate raw materials or store finished products for the cement plant, they’ve now become sought-after photo spots.

Facing the silos is the Coca-Cola Brand Pavilion. The window displays are nostalgic and romantic.

Not much has changed here since a year ago – and that familiarity warmed my heart.

The place is full of retro charm: a gramophone, Shanghai qipao ladies, neon lights, and a vintage car.

With industrial grey as the backdrop, red is the overall design tone, and Coca-Cola cans of various shapes and sizes are used as decorations.

A few tables and chairs are set against a wall, creating a scene perfect for posed photos.

The Coca-Cola Memorial Hall has a collection of bottles in all kinds of packaging and displays all sorts of memorable Coca-Cola merchandise.

The pavilion takes you on an immersive journey through Coca-Cola’s century-old history. Inside the industrial building, several generations’ love for the brand is celebrated. Red arrows on the concrete floor guide you, linking interactive photo spots along a timeline. You can pose all sorts of ways while soaking in Coca-Cola’s heritage – a smart way to let people get to know the brand.

Time Post Office is still in its old spot, but the walls have been painted post-office green, and under the covered walkway, tables and chairs are set out for visitors to rest. When we arrived, the staff member was just back from dinner; we followed her in and had a look around. Some things had changed since last year. The second floor is no longer open to visitors, and the ground floor feels a bit cramped with the industrial equipment inside. The whole themed post office is centred around the element of “time,” and we toured the familiar space quickly. The staff suggested we visit the Time Clock Museum nearby – it had been opened to the public only after improvements, so we hadn’t been there before.

Look at this unique design: a cylindrical piece of equipment runs right through the second floor of the post office. It was originally used to transport stone and has been preserved in place. The Garden Expo Park has many such designs – creative, while keeping the industrial remains intact and making them part of the new identity, full of hidden surprises.

“Nanjing Time” – a landmark transformed from the old tail kiln.

We would hardly have found the Time Museum without this diagram.

Even so, we went up and down the elevator in this spiral metal structure several times, looking for the entrance to the “time silo.”

Up on the high tower, we searched for the museum entrance while enjoying the view from above.

The old building has been reinforced, with various “corridor” spaces inserted, linking old and new in both circulation and form. The steel tower and concrete buildings complement each other, adding layers to the space and making it richer and more appealing. We entered through a linking corridor but couldn’t find the museum entrance.

Eventually we located it, but it looked locked. Judging by the hour, they might not be closed – perhaps the staff had gone to dinner.

We could only imagine the museum’s contents from the floor plan.

The industrial relics, given new life, were even more charming in the setting sun.

The former cement plant has become an industrial heritage site. It’s a model of industrial heritage conservation and adaptive reuse. Jiangsu Garden Expo Park has carried out “light intervention” reinforcement and renovation of the production lines, raw material storage, kiln buildings, cement silos, and tall chimneys, achieving an effect of restoring the old while giving them new functions.

As we were leaving, a little train slowly pulled into the picture of Time Art Valley – the moment was serene and moving, stirring gratitude.

We headed out towards Xiping Gate; the park at that hour was quiet and beautiful.

Looking forward to the next visit…