70-year-old man builds a sky garden beside the imperial city, praised as the most amazing in all of Beijing

Near the East Second Ring Road of Beijing,

right next to the Ming City Wall Relics Park,

and only a 15-minute drive from the Forbidden City.

This area is full of high-rise buildings, and land here is worth its weight in gold.

Unexpectedly, right among these buildings,

a glance upward reveals a lush expanse of green,

and it turns out to be a sky garden on a rooftop!

Building a garden on a rooftop, and right beside the imperial city...

Just who is the owner of this garden?

The owner of the garden is Gao Jianfeng, who has just turned 70. He studied agriculture, and not only is he interested in plants and flowers, but he is also skilled in landscape design. No wonder he could create a 5-level sky garden!

Teacher Gao loves a natural way of life, so his design works always feature large areas of plants and flowers. With these models, he has traveled far and wide, presenting them at universities and forums, hoping more people will embrace this philosophy of living.

Once Teacher Gao retired, he finally had time to fulfill his dream. His home had no yard, but it did have a roof! Thinking it and doing it, Teacher Gao immediately started drawing up plans:

The roof of Teacher Gao's home is an irregular slope. Although the total area is large, it twists and turns this way and that, and most people would back off at the sight of it. But for a master, it was no trouble at all. With a few swift strokes, Teacher Gao completed the rendering of a 5-level sky garden!

First level: small house balcony

The first level of the sky garden is the balcony that came with the original attic. Teacher Gao's previously planted gardenias, money trees, happiness trees, and small-leaf red sandalwood are all here. Looking out over Beijing, it is no longer steel and concrete, but a stretch of lush green...

The small balcony on the first level has a ladder. Climb up this ladder and you reach the second level. The ladder is surrounded by grapevines, with only a gap left open for going up and down. From this angle, it truly is a hidden wonder!

Second level: vineyard

Teacher Gao's vineyard can be said to make full use of the advantages of the sloped roof. At the southeast corner of the entire building, this spot has the best light and is most suitable for grape growth.

The location is good, and the grapes live up to it. This grapevine is an "old vine" that the Gao family has kept for several decades. Look at this old photo and you will see!

Teacher Gao says even his daughter grew up eating grapes from this vine. This grapevine is full of memories!

Third level: rose garden

The third level is neither too big nor too small, a bit awkward, and rather long and narrow, so Teacher Gao filled it with roses, most of them old red roses that bloom frequently and suffer few pests and diseases.

Besides roses, there are also some flowering and fruiting trees, including jasmine, hibiscus, sedum aizoon, peach trees, and coral ardisia, among others. These flowers can either be eaten, steeped for tea, or used as medicine. Teacher Gao really is attentive.

Fourth level: entrance to the peach blossom spring

The fourth level is a long, narrow "L"-shaped corridor planted with a few larger flowers, including large-leaf goosefoot, yellowwood, spring orchids, and four o'clocks, and on the north side a small cherry tree. Besides the plants, this is the passage leading to the heart of the garden!

Looking upward from the fourth level, you see the highlight of the garden. Teacher Gao specially built a wooden staircase and made an archway, naming it "Peach Blossom Spring."

Although there are not ten miles of peach blossoms in the Peach Blossom Spring, amid the bustling traffic of the city it is truly a veritable hidden paradise!

Fifth level: sky "Peach Blossom Spring"

After reaching the fourth level, you cannot wait to see Teacher Gao's fifth level. I heard this is the core of the entire garden~

Climbing to the top level, there is a rooftop garden where you can drink tea while enjoying the flowers and plants, and take in the scenery of Beijing's very center...

This level has the largest area. It not only has flowers and plants, but also fruit trees and vines. With two sets of tables and chairs placed here, a short rest here on ordinary days is better than being an immortal~

To be so carefree right beside the imperial city, Teacher Gao's life has made countless people envious. His sky garden even appeared on Beijing TV, where the host praised it heartily!

Seeing this, do not think Teacher Gao is very idle. Ever since he built this sky garden, he has been incredibly busy. Besides growing flowers, he also grows quite a few vegetables. Rather than calling it a garden, it would not be an exaggeration to call it a vegetable plot!

Besides vegetables, there are also quite a few fruit trees: grapes, peach trees, cherries, apples, and orange trees, all of which must be carefully tended to bear fruit year after year.

By this reckoning, to care for several hundred pots of flowers, plants, and trees, Teacher Gao would need "three heads and six arms." Upon closer asking, Teacher Gao laughed. It turns out he also installed a smart watering system, controlling watering with his phone. I have really seen something new~

As long as you set the watering time on your phone, you can control it remotely and water on schedule~ You would not guess it, but Teacher Gao, over 70, is still a tech expert!

Besides advanced technological equipment, Teacher Gao also made a skateboard for the larger flowers, so pushing them around is effortless, and chasing the sun every day is no problem~

Teacher Gao's attentiveness is not limited to growing flowers and plants. He is especially careful even about the safety of the rooftop garden. The load-bearing points of each area must be fixed to the load-bearing walls to ensure there is no risk at all.

The life of your dreams, of course, requires effort to attain. Every early morning, when sunlight passes through the leaves and flowers, this is Teacher Gao's most gratifying moment!

Among the potted flowers and tended plants, you can still faintly see the ancient city tower in the distance......

When free and tired, the whole family sits beneath the green shade, drinking tea and eating fruit, chatting about everyday matters, and the days flow by amid the fragrance of flowers and the songs of birds.

Even living in a bustling city, it can still attract a few wild ducks to stop by, leaving behind nests and eggs during migration~

Fluttering butterflies are also frequent visitors to the garden, constantly flying in to gather nectar. The so-called "great hermit hides in the city" describes exactly this kind of realm!

Last but not least, although the rooftop garden is gorgeous, the surrounding buildings are dense, and hidden risks still remain. No one knows how much longer Teacher Gao's garden can exist. How I wish such beautiful scenery could be enjoyed not only in pictures~