[Photo from visitgz.com]
The Panhe Sculpture Art Garden is national AAA-rated tourist attraction. Situated in Houjiao village, Haizhu district, Guangzhou, the garden is jointly built for Mr. Pan He, a famous sculptor in China, by Guangzhou Municipal Publicity Bureau, CPC Committee of Haizhu District, the district government, and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. The garden is the largest outdoor sculpture exhibition area named after an individual. Covering a total area of 27,000 square meters with phase I project occupying 12,000 square meters, the garden was open to the citizens on May 4, 2008. The phase II project was completed in October 2010. The Panhe Sculpture Art Garden has brought new tourist culture highlights for Guangzhou Asian Games.
The garden features collection and exhibition of sculpture arts and integrates the function of appreciation, research and popular science education of sculpture arts as well as leisure, entertainment and tourism. With the theme of "History over the Century", a total of over 100 sculptures selected from the works of Mr. Pan He over the years are displayed in the garden. With abundant subjects connected by one theme, Mr. Pan He has recorded the development progress of the century-old history of modern and contemporary China through the art of sculpture. The works are arrayed in the chronological order of striving for survival, independence, liberation, prosperity and harmony, which clearly shows the historical trace from the Opium War to the westernization movement, from the War against Japanese Aggression to the war of liberation, and from the end of the Cultural Revolution(1966-1976) to the regained respect for knowledge. Many works, such as "Contest", "Hard Times", "Guangzhou Liberation Statue" and "The Cattle Opening up the Wasteland", have represented the unyielding, persevering and enterprising spirits as well as the glorious images of the older-generation proletarian revolutionaries who have built the Party for the public and exercise power for the people, struggled hard amid difficulties and honestly performedone’s official duties.
Great attention has been attached to the choiceness and enlightenment of exhibits in the garden, whose arrangement are well integrated with the environment in perspective, space and dimension, combining the green ecological garden with the refined sculpture art. Touring the garden, tourists are not only exposed to the beautiful garden environment but to the cultural shock brought by the high-level sculpture art, which in turn serves the objective of the garden.
On the basis of the rich tourist resources, the garden has stuck to the principle of putting equal emphasis on preservation and development. The garden vigorously contacted and communicated with sculptors at home and abroad, had short-term academic exchanges and life experience through exchange of scholars, held culture salons, selected exhibitions and pottery competitions at regular intervals, and promoted the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese sculpture art. The garden is committed to enhancing its landscaping, protecting the ecological environment, reinforcing the display effect of sculptures and its complementation with leisure and entertainment functions, in order to build a distinct tourism culture.
Address: Houjiao village, Haizhu district, Guangzhou city
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