Introduction

China Root Art Expo Garden lies at Kaihua, the source of Qiantang River, abutting the Yellow Mountain, Sanqing Mountain, and Qiandao Lake. The whole scenic area covers 360 acres, possesses 20 spots including the root-carved Buddhism Land, China Root Carving Museum, China Root Carving of Historical Celebrities Museum, etc. It also houses a variety of more than 160 species of plants, and 36 species of birds. More than 4,000 pieces of bonsai (mini landscapes) and 2,000 pieces of root carves relating to all kinds of cultural themes are on display.

The Qingmei Garden is built on the hillside. Here, 3,000 pieces of bonsai are on the display. The themes of the bonsai pieces vary from country house to grand mountains. All sorts of strange things found in nature are represented in the works.

The root-carved Buddhism Land has an established area of 12,000 square meters, and includes 3 temple halls. In the Buddhism Land, more than a thousand pieces of root carving works of Shakyamuni, Tathagata, the four Buddhas, the four Devarajas and the 500 Arhats are on display. Among them, the biggest piece of work is the root carving of Shakyamuni, which weighs 40 tons. The group of 500 Arhats runs 680 meters in length. The layout of the whole work showcases a quaint yet elegant taste. Xu Guqing, the master of root carving spent 10 years collecting Longyan wood from all over the country at a huge expense. The root sculptures exquisitely depict the vivid expressions of different figures. In creating of the work, Mr. Xun combined the ancient technique of root carving together with ideas and concepts from modern art, attaching great artistic value to the piece of work. As the largest set of root sculptures in the world, documentation for the group sculptures of 500 Arhats has been submitted in an application for the Guinness Book of Records.

The China Root Carving of Historical Celebrities Museum consists of 3 Tong style buildings, taking up 14,000 square meters of area. This is a place exhibiting the sculptures of prominent figures in Chinese Dao culture, representatives of Confucian culture and traditional legends. There are also many works on historical celebrities and the emperors of various dynasties.