A Two-Day Spring Festival Trip to Nanjing Garden Expo Park

I got the location right, planned the company well, but failed to account for the fickle weather. Days ago the forecast showed rain on New Year's Day, so we booked our trip for the second day of the lunar year, returning on the third. Little did I know, the "perfect" days I had chosen turned out to be one day of relentless drizzle and gray skies, the next a biting cold wind, plus a nighttime mix of snow and howling gusts. Truly spectacular! But no weather can stop a true travel lover! Even under brooding clouds, we happily drove toward Nanjing Garden Expo Park (Jiangsu Garden Expo Park). The rain came and went, and by the time we neared Nanjing it was just sporadic light drops. The perk of staying inside the park: you can drive all the way in and park in the hotel's underground garage. After many comparisons, I picked Hotel Indigo, perched halfway up the hillside with great views, and the evening Chinese New Year fireworks display would be right on the square opposite the hotel – very convenient.

After checking in and storing luggage, it was nearly 11 a.m. We hopped straight on the hotel shuttle to the Underwater Botanical Garden in the "Cloud Pool Dream Valley" area, because the hip restaurant "Huachu" is right there.

Just off the shuttle, we were greeted by the misty veil that always seems to accompany rainy days.

Going down the steps beside the viewing platform to the lowest level, we arrived at the Underwater Botanical Garden, and the name "Huachu" came into sight.

The first floor is a lifestyle store and café; the second floor a Western restaurant. It's a must-visit spot for anyone who cares about aesthetics.

Every dish was delicate and delicious, no duds. The only flaw: the price!

After eating, we wandered around the Underwater Botanical Garden. Maybe because it was winter and a gloomy, rainy day, it felt especially bleak and charmless. I don't know if spring would make it prettier. We didn't finish the tour before leaving. Only later did I learn that the mine tunnel I had wanted to see is at the far eastern end of the garden. I didn't get to walk down there – such a regret! Taking the elevator back up, we returned to the viewing platform and decided to look for the "Floating Stone Underground Palace."

From a distance, the giant ore specimen already peeked out.

After descending one long escalator after another, we finally reached the Floating Stone Underground Palace.

Maybe because I'd seen too many pictures beforehand, what I saw didn't match the awe that online posts described. But the echoes here felt novel and fun – not like a mountain valley echo, more like the reverberation in a symphony hall.

People's shared photos were framed by blue skies, giving a futuristic, sci-fi feel; looking at my shots, the dark clouds gave it an even more dystopian sci-fi vibe, haha.

Leaving the palace, we followed the railway tracks to the first station and boarded a vintage Republican-era-style retro train.

The mini train costs 30 yuan per person and departs every 30 minutes. We didn't have good weather that day but luck was on our side: just five minutes after arriving, the train departed, and our family of three had a whole carriage to ourselves 😄

By chance, the final stop happened to be the "Time Art Valley" area we wanted to visit. Almost all the popular photo spots are here. Said to be a cultural quarter rebuilt from an old cement factory, the big clock is the park's landmark – the "Nanjing Time."

In the square, there was a pairs ice-skating performance. Next to the rink there was a mini play-snow area made by a small snow machine. Kids could easily spend a long time here.

The Time Post Office, where you can send a postcard to your future self.

The Camera Art Museum, where you can see the past and present lives of cameras.

The Dark Horse Comics Museum. Knowing nothing about comics, I just did a quick walk-through.

The Toy Dream Factory, which is basically just a toy store.

Coca-Cola Brand Pavilion. As a big Coke fan, this was what I anticipated most. But after digging deeper, I found that the true exhibition highlights aren't all here – you need to book through the official website in advance and then take a shuttle to the Coke factory for a tour. Perhaps because of the high visitor numbers during the holidays, that activity wasn't available for those days. Sigh…

The Time Warehouse – this was my surprise find. I hadn't seen a single word about this exhibition hall before, yet I felt it was the most valuable here.

It uses geological fault slices to visualize time, and a whole wall documents a sexagenary cycle's worth of time slices. Now in middle age, I've become overly sentimental about the concept of "time." Standing before that wall, I felt inexplicably wistful.

Here you can learn about all the units of time.

On this wall hang iconic clocks from various countries. When you stand in front of one clock, it plays the unique chime of that clock. The last one is the "Nanjing Time," playing "Jasmine Flower."

The clocks exhibited here instantly awakened childhood memories. The Time Warehouse is worth a visit.

Avant-Garde Bookstore. Perhaps because my expectations were high, it felt just okay when I actually went inside. But turning several huge cement silos into such a modern bookstore – that designer is truly remarkable.

As we were finishing our visit, the hotel called to say the room was cleaned and ready. We were indeed tired and decided to head back to rest. Hotel Indigo was converted from a quarry, so ore motifs are everywhere. Even the elevator displays show mining tools – very unique. After a break, my little girl had gotten hold of her laptop and refused to let go of her drama marathon, so Fatty Zhao and I decided to explore the "Su Charm Valley" area (Jiangsu’s Thirteen Classic Gardens). Though I'm not particularly into classical gardens, at the very least we had to see our own Taizhou Garden!

The Thirteen Gardens aren't far from the hotel, so we chose to walk. Along the way, we kept spotting railway tracks like these, and I thought they had a special charm.

We found our Taizhou Garden first.

Seeing this reminded me of childhood afternoons clambering over the rockeries at Taishan Park.

Nanjing Garden, the tallest and most magnificent, reproduces the Jingyang Tower from the Six Dynasties period.

Standing by the wall of Nanjing Garden, you can gaze down at the scenery of other gardens. After visiting two gardens and not really grasping the deeper meanings, we decided to call it quits and head back to the hotel for our New Year feast!

The semi-buffet New Year dinner at the hotel's "Mai Restaurant" was somewhat disappointing – pricey and the main courses just average, yet the desserts were exceptionally delicious, the best I've ever had at any hotel, bar none.

We booked a window table in advance just so we wouldn't have to stand out in the cold square across to watch the fireworks.

But to get a complete view of the fireworks, you still need to go out onto the restaurant balcony and brave the freezing wind.

After dinner, Fatty Zhao and I, the two big fools, went for a walk to digest, thinking we'd check out the night scenery. Who knew that as we strolled, snowflakes started drifting down, then came a squall with goose-feather snow lashing our faces.

Two mad souls with the entire Thirteen Gardens to ourselves in the blizzard, haha 😄

While snapping photos, I half feared park staff would show up and cart us off as lunatics.

Finally back in the warm hotel. Every time I walk this path to the hotel, I feel like I'm on a pilgrimage – it's just too steep. The hotel is lovely, but hard on the legs. My little girl said it reminded her of the 999 steps at Tianmen Mountain. 😄

A wonderful day starts with a tasty breakfast. At last, the sky cleared! Although the wind outside was bone-chilling, having sunshine felt so good!

The hotel had given us ice rink tickets, and it felt wasteful not to use them, so we went for a brief skate. However, the ice surface was bumpy from the previous day's rain, which hampered my little girl's moves, so we quit after a short while.

We took a shuttle to the Hug Hug Paradise in the "Cliff-side Flower Valley" area. It's like an unpowered amusement park with all kinds of slides, swings, and climbing – a great place for kids to run wild.

The beautiful view by the cliff. My daughter said it looked like a mini Maldives in Nanjing.

The weather was too cold to play any longer. We ultimately decided to have lunch at Yechun in Yangzhou Garden, which Fatty Zhao had been longing for. It's said to be as authentic as the original in Yangzhou, so we came specially to try it. I still think nothing beats the food in my own Taizhou.

Finally, one last pilgrimage along that path to fetch our luggage from the hotel and head home. I'd like to end this piece with a line I saw on my social feed today: The meaning of travel is to strive, in this imperfect world, to capture moments of beauty that sustain us through our ordinary lives.