Wintersweet blossom at Wofo Temple

We visited the China National Botanic Garden in Beijing on December 30, 2025—a windy, cold, yet brilliantly sunny winter day—to admire the blooming wintersweets (腊梅) at Wofo Temple, also known as the Sleeping Buddha Temple, located within the garden.

South entrance to the Garden

Wofo Temple is famous for its wintersweet blossoms. The delicate yellow flowers thrive beside the temple’s centuries-old red walls, creating striking contrasts of color and texture. We arrived at the perfect moment: a clear blue sky, bright winter sunlight, and wintersweets in full bloom lining the red walls. Together, they formed a vivid and unforgettable visual experience.

entrance to Wofo temple

Bloomsome wintersweets by the red wall  - zoon in 1

Bloomsome wintersweets by the red wall  - zoon in 2

Away from the red walls, the wintersweets blooming beneath pagodas, set against the deep blue sky, and their shadows cast upon the ancient temple retaining walls each carried a quiet beauty of their own—subtle, timeless, and deeply evocative.

Golden wintersweet bloomsome under blue sky by a pagoda 

It was very cold that day, and after about an hour of wandering among the blossoms, we sought warmth at a teahouse within the temple grounds. There, we enjoyed hot tea served in small cups, accompanied by traditional desserts. Calligraphic scrolls hanging on the walls completed the setting, creating an atmosphere rich with authentic Chinese cultural charm.

Just outside the teahouse, in the courtyard between temple halls, stands a legendary wintersweet bush in front of the Hall of the Heavenly Kings. Said to be more than 1,300 years old, dating back to the temple’s founding, it is known as the “second-blooming plum”, having once withered and miraculously revived—a living symbol of resilience and renewal.

After our temple visit, we continued our cultural immersion with a late lunch at a traditional Chinese vegetarian restaurant located just outside the temple, yet still within the Botanic Garden.

It was a day steeped in winter light, quiet beauty, and a deep sense of Chinese tradition — a true immersion in Chinese culture.

Setting Tea Table

protected 1300 year old wintersweet bush

mural at the traditional vegetarian restaurant

Note

1. Wintersweet whose scientific name is Chimonanthus praecox,  is a species of flowering plant in the genus Chimonanthus of the family Calycanthaceae. The plant is native to China and is known as làméi (蠟梅) in Chinese. 

2. The blog post was polished by Chatgpt.

Pantheon

The first time I was exposed to the word was from an news story. From the context, I guessed its meaning - a group of particularly respected, famous, or important people. I did not look it up in dictionary, and only this meaning of the word stayed with me for many years. 

Originally a "pantheon" refers to the collective gods of a people or a temple dedicated to them, most famously the ancient Roman building, the Pantheon, originally a temple to all gods.

Pantheon, Rome, November 29th, 2025

We visited Pantheon, Rome during our November 2025 European trip. I learnt a lot more about it.

Patheon as a temple, stands out among all ancient temples. It is the best preserved ancient buildings in Rome, and arguably the best-preserved ancient temple in the world. It has been in continuous use through its over 1700 year history.

The Pantheon dome is also an engineering master piece - The Pantheon is the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Many design features made this possible - Oculus (circular opening) at Apex of the dome, and sunken panels (coffers), in five rings of 28. They help to reduce the weight of the dome and serve other functions as well. 

The oculus at the dome's apex and the entry door are the only natural sources of light in the interior. Throughout the day, light from the oculus moves around this space in a reverse sundial effect: marking time with light rather than shadow. The oculus also offers cooling and ventilation to the inside.

Religiously they symbolize the arched vault of the heavens.

The Oculus and Sunken Panels of the Dome

However the Oculus also allows rains to fall into the temple. A clever design of the floor of the temple make the floor serves as a drainage system without obvious drainage channels or drainage ports. The Pantheon's floor has a subtle convex slope, rising towards the center, with 22 discreet drainage holes (two under the oculus, others near the perimeter) that channel rainwater into an ancient, still-functioning underground Roman sewer system, preventing flooding and preserving the building's foundation.

two drainage holes under the oculus, others near the perimeter

Of course the Temple's main purpose is religious, and since AD 609, a Catholic church called the Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs. We saw all the typical figures of a Christian church, Jesus on a cross, Virgin Mary and the child, ...

Madonna del Sasso - Virgin Mary Holding Infant Jesus

We lingered inside the Patheon for over 1 hour and I was amazed by its engineering wonder more than the religious significance. 

The fountain of the Patheon

Api Api River Kayaking

We went to Api Api River for our first paddling outing for 2026, in the morning of January 4th, a sunny but breezy Sunday. 

Api Api River is a tidal river inside Pasir Ris Beach and Park. We scouted the river and Sungei Tampine months ago in August 2025 just to make sure there is no blockage of the water ways.  The paddling trail on Api Api River is 1.5km one way, 3 km round trip.

For that day, the high tide was at 11am. 

We arrived at the beach at 9:30am and installed our inflatable kayak Emma in 10 minutes, and ready to go. Unfortunately, at shoreline, the wind was much stronger than inland.

The wave was high and crushing the shore. We were especially careful when getting into the kayak: all carry-ons - phones, camera, keys, wallet ... were all placed inside the yellow dry-bag. The kayak was placed perpendicular to the coming waves, Lily got on first, and while she paddling gently, I got in.  

We then paddled against the wind and wave, away from the shore enough distance before turning into the river mouth. The wave was much smaller, the wind weaker, once we passed under the pedestrian bridge and further away from the river mouth

Blue sky, strong wind and high wave

Waves crashing the shore

The river was calm and quiet, the river banks are lined with dense trees and bushes. It is pretty deep, our paddles could not reach the river bed, and wide as well, 20+meters near the mouth, 15 - 18 meters upstream. We were the only persons on the river.

Looking upstream - into the city

Looking downstream - towards Johor Strait

We were pleasantly surprised to see a lot of birds shortly into the river. Most of the birds were blue tailed bee eaters, and a few collared king fishers. They were catching bugs and resting on bare tree branches. Occasionally we saw egrets and herons flying by, and long tailed parakeets flying over - heard their unique chirpings. 

We stopped paddling, let the rising tide carrying us upstream (slowly), and enjoyed the sights, the  tranquility and solitude.

The red buildings, mangroves, and bridges added variations to the green world we were in - green river with green trees on both side of the river. We paddled through under 2 more bridges, and stopped by a mesh screen across the river at the 4th bridge. We turned back.

Many blue tailed bee eaters on the bare tree branches

red apartment buildings by the river are separated by the dense trees from the river

reflection of a bridge's underside beams

Paddling in unison

On the return trip, we started to collect trashes  - primarily plastic bags, bottles. In this visually clean river, we collected a full grocery plastic bag of plastic trashes!

Along the way, I spotted a night heron on other side of the river, in the bushes, and we got close to it, and it flew away to a high branch. In the process, we got really close to a blue heron nests in the bush, we startled a blue heron, it took off from inside the bush and flew to a tall tree some distance away at the river bank.

After 3km paddling, we had been on the Api Api River for about 80 minutes.

This is a great river for kayaking, though a little bit short. 

a night heron at Api Api River

our paddling trail

Epilogue

Our original plan was to paddle to Sungei Tampine, which is only 600m long,  and has different scenery than Api Api. We battled the strong wind and swelling waves for about 40 minutes for a distance of 900 meter in Johor strait to reach the mouth of Sungei Tampine, only to see that the river mouth was blocked by buoys. 

We decided to debark there and went back to the carpark on foot. Getting off the kayak was as hazardous as getting into the kayak in that condition. We took all the precautions, and safely got onto land.

I walked to the carpark to get the kayak bag and returned to the kayak take-out point. 

Two person carrying the bag was inconvenient, Lily carried it by herself on her back for half mile before we eventually shared the load.

Carrying the weight !!

on land

Three Vistas by Yangtze River near Wuhan

Our year end visit to Wuhan brought us to three locations along the Yangtze river: Wuchang Wan, Yellow Crane Tower, and the Emerald Lake on Yangtze River at Huangshi, Hubei.

Wuchang Wan, a riverbank park, is located between the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge and Yingwu Zhou River Bridge. The river narrows here, has a small kink, and flows from southwest to northeast before turning back.

It was a beautiful, crisply cold, sunny day when we got there. What struck us first was the remarkable resemblance between The Ying Wu Zhou Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge: both are red and both are suspension bridge. Despite the dry season for the river, the water level was low, it still flew very fast. The fast flow is due to the fact that the river narrows a lot from 1.89km wide near Ying Wu Zhou Bridge to 1.09km wide at Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in 1.95km flow distance.

Along the river bank, the willow trees still had green leaves, long tailed shrikes were chirping.

Turning the corner of the kink, the double deck Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, upper deck road way, lower deck railway, appeared. The bridge is the first bridge ever built over the great river. It also carries numerous memories for me, I travelled numerous times on it, by train or by bus: visiting grandpa in northern Hubei countryside, going to graduate school at Beijing, and visiting relatives in the city.

Ying Wu Zhou Bridge

Green leaves on Willow trees 

A long tailed shrike on a bare tree branch

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge - the first bridge built over the river

The second place we visited by Yangtze river was the Yellow Crane Tower.

This beautiful tower has cultural and religious significance but it is not the original ancient namesake. The ancient tower was destroyed and rebuilt twelve times by warfare or fire according to Wikipedia.

The last time we visited the Tower was long time ago in 1999. The tower remains the same, but its surroundings have changed a lot for the better, with sculptures, Paifangs, gardens, pounds... The area is now a large park on the Snake Hill. It was a very pleasant stroll through the park, and to the top floor of the Tower.

The Yellow Crane Tower

This modern mural is based on ancient poem - Yellow Crane Flying away

view of Turtle Hill with TV tower across the Yangtze River from Yellow Crane Tower

The garden in the park still had brilliant foliage

The newly built millennium bell

Paifang and Temples near the Tower

Park Gate

The third place we visited was a seasonal natural wonder - the Emerald lake on the Yangtze River bed during winter dry season. 

It is not a permanent lake, but the shallow, emerald-green and turquoise water pools that naturally form on the sandbars along the Yangtze River in Guniuzhou Village, Hekou Town, Huangshi City, during the dry season each year (approximately November to March of the following year) when the water level lowers. The lakes are named for their jade-like clarity and gem-like colors.

It was the first time we heard about this lake, a great place to enjoy nature, and appreciate the force of nature. 

Note

1. Poem that made the Yellow Crane Tower well known

Yellow Crane Tower was made famous by an 8th-century poem written by Cui Hao, titled "Yellow Crane Tower" (黃鶴樓). The original text of the poem is shown below:

昔人已乘黃鶴去， 此地空餘黃鶴樓。
黃鶴一去不復返， 白雲千載空悠悠。
晴川歷歷漢陽樹， 芳草萋萋鸚鵡洲。
日暮鄉關何處是， 煙波江上使人愁。

2. More about the Emerald lake on the bed of Yangtze river: Earlier in November 2025, migrating water fowls stopped by ( http://www.cnhubei.com/cmdetail/2020636)