Jinxiu Valley Turns Bad to Good

　　A major attraction at this year's International Garden Expo now taking place in southern Beijing is a sunken garden dubbed¹ the Jinxiu Valley.

 

　　CRI's Zhang Ru tells us more about this garden, which has sprouted² from a former sand-pit.

 

　　Visitor Wang Jie is a fan of landscape design. He says Jinxiu Valley is a must-see in the park.

 

　　"It is novelty to me. They built the garden based on the existing topography. I've heard that this place used to be a landfill. It's good to see it's now been turned into a sunken garden."

 

　　It's hard to believe just a few years ago, this fairyland garden was a 30-meter-deep pit full of garbage covering an area equivalent to 20 football fields.

 

　　The design of the sunken garden was inspired by the Butchart Gardens in Canada. This area was used for mining limestone³ until the Butcharts began planting trees and flowers.

 

　　Xia Chenggang, one of the designers of the valley, explains more about the transformation⁴.

 

　　"At the very beginning, when we stood in the pit and looked up, we could only see a horizontal skyline. If we hadn't change the terrain⁵, no matter how many trees we planted here, it would still looked like a pit, at best a green pit. So our first step was to make the land look like it's undulating."

 

　　Xia says there are more than 350 kinds of flowers and trees growing in the Jinxiu Valley. Visitors can enjoy different views in different seasons.

 

　　Advance irrigation technology was also used. Details of each tree in the valley was fed into a computer. The system figures out how much water each tree needs. When it rains, the system can calculate how much rainwater a tree has absorbed and then readjust as necessary.

 

　　The Jinxiu Valley and nearby Beijing Park featuring traditional Beijing architecture were combined into a major attraction of the Garden Expo, known as "Big Beijing Park Area."

 

　　Xia Chenggang is also chief designer of the Beijing Park. He says the Beijing Park and the Jinxiu Valley represent the city's past and future.

 

　　"Our initial idea was to turn the sand pit and the high-speed railway near it into a new city attraction, representing the future of the city. The Beijing Park represents Beijing's past and splendid history. The two sites inherit the past and embrace the future."

 

　　Covering an area of around 400 football fields, the Jinxiu Valley is only a small part of the expo. Visitors can discover more in the coming months.

 

　　For CRI, I am Zhang Ru.

1 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 sprouted   

v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• We can't use these potatoes; they've all sprouted. 这些土豆儿不能吃了，都出芽了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rice seeds have sprouted. 稻种已经出芽了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 limestone   

n.石灰石

参考例句：

• Limestone is often used in building construction.石灰岩常用于建筑。
• Cement is made from limestone.水泥是由石灰石制成的。

4 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

5 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。