A 70-year-old man built a sky garden beside the imperial city, and it is truly breathtaking

A 70-year-old man built a sky garden beside the imperial city, and it is truly breathtaking!

Nowadays, whenever people mention that someone has built a garden, gardening fans sigh: they must be so rich. For ordinary people, having a place to live is good enough, let alone a garden. The man Huahua wants to introduce today not only has a garden, but a 5-story sky garden. Where is it located? Beside the imperial city of Beijing!

Near the East Second Ring Road in 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 it could be said that every inch of land is worth its weight in gold.

Unexpectedly, right among the buildings,

a lush stretch of green comes into view as soon as you look up,

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

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

Who exactly is the owner of this garden?

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

Teacher Gao likes a natural way of life, so his design works always include large areas of plants and flowers. With these models, he traveled far and wide to universities and forums to display them, hoping more people could accept this philosophy of life.

Once Teacher Gao retired, he finally had time to fulfill his dream. He had no courtyard at home, but there happened to be a rooftop! No sooner said than done, Teacher Gao immediately started drawing plans:

The roof of Teacher Gao's home is an irregular slope. Although the total area is large, it twists and turns east and west, 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: the small house balcony

The first level of the sky garden is the balcony that originally came with the attic. Teacher Gao's previously planted gardenias, money trees, happiness trees, and small-leaf red sandalwood are all here. Looking across Beijing, what you see is no longer reinforced concrete, but a stretch of green...

The first-level small balcony has a ladder, and climbing up from this ladder leads to the second level. The area around the ladder is covered with grapevines, with only an opening left for going up and down. From this angle, it really is a hidden wonder!

Second level: the vineyard

Teacher Gao's vineyard could be said to make full use of the advantage 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 tree" that the Gao family has grown for several decades. Look at this old photo and you will understand!

Teacher Gao said that even his daughter grew up eating grapes from this tree. This grapevine is full of memories!

Third level: the rose garden

The third level is neither large nor small, a bit awkward, and rather long and narrow, so Teacher Gao planted it full of 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, peach trees, and coral ardisia, among others. These flowers can either be eaten, brewed as tea, or used medicinally. Teacher Gao is indeed meticulous.

Fourth level: the entrance to the peach blossom spring

The fourth level is a long, narrow "L"-shaped corridor, planted with several larger flowers, including large-leaf goosefoot, goldenrain tree, spring orchid, and four o'clock flower, and on the north side a small cherry tree is also planted. Besides the plants, it is also the passage leading to the core of the garden!

Looking up 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, in a city of heavy traffic it truly is a veritable haven of peace!

Fifth level: the 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~

Going up to the top level, there is a rooftop garden, where you can drink tea while enjoying the plants and flowers, and also 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, resting here for a while 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 and was praised by the host!

Seeing this, do not think Teacher Gao is very idle. Ever since building 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 citrus trees, all of which must be carefully tended to bear fruit year after year.

By this calculation, with several hundred pots of plants and trees to care for, Teacher Gao would need "three heads and six arms." Upon asking more carefully, Teacher Gao laughed. It turns out he also installed a smart watering system and controls watering with his phone. Huahua is really amazed~

As long as the watering time is set on the phone, it can be controlled remotely and watered on schedule~ You would not guess it, but Teacher Gao, over 70, is also a tech expert!

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

Teacher Gao's meticulousness 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 every 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 flowers and leaves, this is Teacher Gao's most gratifying moment!

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

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

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

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

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

The text and image information comes from the internet