From traveling around 20 countries to growing succulents: the transformation after several trips to Tibet and Xinjiang

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Thanks to the author [Yunyou Sifang] for theoriginal submissionsharing

Edited and compiled by: Encyclopedia Jun

Coordinates: Shenzhen, Guangdong Province

The meaning of travel

 The meaning of travel

Chen Qizhen 

00:00/04:04

Dreaming of being like Li Bai, "discussing the world through poetry and books, traveling to the ends of the earth with a sword."

First I shut myself in to read ten thousand books, then, when the stillness grew and I felt the urge to move, I began to travel. Within China I took in the famous mountains and great rivers, and overseas I left footprints in more than 20 countries. During that time I spent more than a year in Europe. Besides enjoying the natural scenery, I was especially obsessed with Europe's best museums, such as the Louvre in Paris, the Winter Palace in Petersburg, the Vatican Museums, and the Acropolis Museum in Athens. I even went to the Louvre 2 times. For naturally majestic scenery, nowhere in China surpasses Xinjiang and Tibet. I entered Tibet and Xinjiang 2 times each. The first time entering Tibet was a north-south route from Sichuan and Yunnan in and out through Qinghai and Gansu; the second time was the great Ali loop going west from Tibet. The first time entering Xinjiang was a loop around northern Xinjiang from Urumqi to Kanas; the second time was a loop around the Tianshan range from Urumqi to Ili.

Let me post a few of Tibet's lakes and mountains for you to enjoy

Unknown name, I like the clouds in the sky and the hills in the lake

Mapam Yumco, one of Tibet's three holy lakes

Yamdrok Lake, one of Tibet's three holy lakes

The birds in the lake, mostly bar-headed geese

During my travels, I discovered that I am actually a flower fanatic. In order to know all the flowers in the world, I repeatedly pored over flower catalogs, and then went everywhere to see and photograph flowers.

Beauties like flowers

After several years of traveling, when movement reached its extreme I longed for stillness, and I wanted to shut myself in again to read and grow flowers. In October 2016, by a lucky coincidence, I encountered cute and lovely succulents, and there was no stopping it. Starting from tiny bean-sized seedlings, I actually grew more than a hundred pots. In Shenzhen's best three seasons of autumn, winter, and spring, I raised the succulents plump and fresh, one and all, and felt quite delighted and proud.

But the good times did not last. Entering Shenzhen's cruel summer, it was either ten days of high heat or half a month of heavy rain, while I insisted on outdoor growing, and I myself went traveling for a month in July. By autumn 2017, of more than a hundred pots of succulents, only a little over 20 pots remained, mostly leaf-propagation seedlings, such as Mingyue and Zile and the like. Those that survived are all heroes. Salute the heroes!

Autumn 2017 was another new starting point. I gathered my feelings, filled one empty pot after another, and now the succulents are even more numerous and better than last year. There are clusters and small old stumps, but I still lack the imposing cliff-style old stumps. This cannot be rushed; it needs the blessing of time. I believe that when the time comes, they will naturally appear. Looking forward to it...

I do not chase succulent varieties; beauty is the kingly way, provided they live healthily. I advocate nature, purely outdoor growing, no water control, no pesticide application, no concern for birds, mice, bees, or insects, no pursuit of condition. Let everything follow nature, just like the original heart.

Before summer arrives, I will make a record for appreciation and for comparison after autumn.

Nümeiyue, a pair of lotus flowers blooming side by side

Xiuyan, squeezed together basking in the sun

Marcus, it is so good to have you to lean on

Marcus, a tree of spring flowers and chrysanthemums blooming

Chiguicheng, unafraid of wind and rain

Tia, painted with cinnabar lacquer?

Little Mingyue

Little Mingyue and little Ruby

Bear's Paw

Blue Elf, so blue it turns purple

Also Blue Elf, intoxicatingly red in the rain

Huojia old stump

Ruby, two red branches revealing fragrant dew

Opalina

Blue Pine

Violet

Chihuahua

Allen, a family of four

Peach Egg, first make it fat and large, and later I can try to grow the cute little round chubby look

Guan Yin Lotus, one practices eugenic and selective breeding, one practices having many offspring

Winter Beauty, one-year-old leaf-propagation seedlings, a group of beautiful young girls

Mingyue

Cupid, surprisingly also very good at producing pups

Yanrihui, naturally gorgeous

Laura, a single small seedling bought in, surprisingly produced pups in a crowd

Sasa Queen, after black rot it grew beautifully. It then grew into a ball again, and one heavy watering by soaking the pot opened it up.

Aeonium, looking more and more like a rose

Ribingmei, a beautiful little fairy

Sometimes I wonder why I am obsessed with succulents. Perhaps it is because other flowers bloom only one season a year, while succulents are flowers that never wither, and they become more and more beautiful. With succulents for company, there is poetry and distant places in my heart. It is beautiful.

Hongbian Yueying, like a lotus

Black Prince, one of the elders

Orange Ball

Yuyan Zuo

Onsno

Green Aeonium

Thin-leaf Blue Bird

Ebony

A little interjection: besides succulents, I also grow roses and orchids, all raised from small seedlings to flowering, which gives me a special sense of achievement

European rose

Cymbidium

Fragrant orchid

Phalaenopsis and Dendrobium

Growing succulents cultivates an ordinary mind.

Sometimes, when they are clearly growing well, they may still suffer black rot. If they can be saved, save them; if they cannot be saved, start over from scratch. Some are crooked and ugly, but as they grow they become beautiful, truly like cheating. So it is like life, full of accidents and surprises. Just open your heart and be full of expectations.

Violet

Phoenix, the fighter jet among tough succulents

I think it is Tia, although it was bought under the variety name Crispy Duck

It is also beautiful when green

Tia

Hongbian Yueying? Huayueye?

TP, I like the green flesh with red tips

Huojia

Dongyun Biaolina

Lotus

Mingyue, one of the elders, passed on to a friend

Ghost Princess, so beautiful

Haworthia cooperi

Leaf-propagated Zile, chubby

Green Bean

Wanyehime Kogire, one of the elders

Tia, at its reddest and most fiery

Raindrop

Yangjin

Siberian group

Snow Claw

Fiona, one of the elders

Yudie

Blue Echeveria

Zile

Happy that I can raise discarded, half-dead plants into beautiful shapes and vivid colors. I deliberately bought clearance items from the flower market and raised them into beautiful shapes and vivid colors; I raised the tiny bean-sized ones I picked up into small old stumps; I raised the bald ones after summer into something like roses. With my own two hands I create beauty, experiencing the gifts of nature and life. I am happy.

Blue Bean, when bought it was so leggy and thin it was like a bean sprout, now I love it greatly

Light Snow, when it came it was leggy and green, then green leaves with pink centers, now golden edges and blue leaves, truly changing in many ways

Little Ball Rose, once a clearance seedling from the flower market, a leggy weed like a bean sprout, and it even had powdery mildew. Time is a beautician; rose after rose hangs from the branches.

Hongbian Yueying, it was damaged after summer, and after recovering it still lacks leaves on half a side, but it is as gorgeous as a rose

A soul that freely loves beauty, a woman who loves reading, traveling, and growing flowers

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