My favorite place in the whole world

Now I love traveling. I have been to Italy and Germany, visited Rome, Capri, Florence, Munich,  Neuschwanstein. I have been to the beaches of Hawaii, and the vineyards of Napa Valley. But my favorite place to have fun has got to be this little park in Xianyang, where I grew up in China. I grew up going to this park, and I have so many memories and pictures from it! Let me show you.

Mom and me in front of the park entrance. When I look at this picture now, I  suddenly realized  how ornate it looks.

After we go through the gate, we'd stop by a fountain, and slowly walk toward the pond. Right next to a pond is this small little hill that I love to run up to. I loved to compete with my friends to see who's the fastest going up and down. Here is a picture of me at the hill top. I must have been seven or eight years old in it.

Me climbing the hill!

Dad and me on top of the hill. Yeah! I just conquered the hill!

After the hill, we continue walking around the pond. In the summertime it is really nice. There is a Chinese pavilion that we often stop by and enjoy the scenery.

Dad and me in the pavilion.

You are not allowed to swim in the pond but you can rent a row boat. 

My parents and I on a boat in the Xianyang park.

Mom rowing on the boat. Look the weird duck boat behind the picture. Right next to Mom are our lunchboxes; she always makes lunch for us so we can eat at the park. 

Here is me rowing. I guess we were going in circles, seeing that Mom put her oar down.

Me and my mom hanging out at the pond.

And then we'd hangout some more around the pond. There is a zoo inside the park, so we always go there to say hi to the camels, birds, etc. I like the zoo but I remember it didn't smell nice.

Me at the zoo, feeding ... I am not sure what I am feeding. Is it a reindeer, or a camel?

Every time I come to the park, I always made sure to visit my good friend Mr. Lion. He's very colorful and fun to climb on top of.

Me on top of the colorful stone lion.

Usually towards the end of the day, we would go and get this beautifully made candy, and I'd sit on the leaf benches that are all around the park, and eat my awesome candy.

Me sitting on the leaf bench and enjoying my brown sugar candy.

Years later, when I went back to China in 1999, I also went to the park and got one of those candy, and sat on a leaf bench, just like when I was young. Although, you could tell that the park is losing some of it luster--- the paint on the leaf benches are coming off.

Me getting back my childhood memories by eating my favorite candy in 1999.

When I went back to China in 2009, I again got that candy. But this time, I really made sure to take pictures to document how it is made.

The candy stand.

To get a candy made for you, you must pay a flat fee. Then you must spin the needle to determine what you will get. Whichever thing the needle lands on, the candy man will make it for you. It could be a peach, a gold fish, a bird, or a butterfly; but the best one has to be the dragon. When I was young I cried when the needle landed on something small like a butterfly, and begged for the dragon but the candy man will not give in.

The candy man starts with melted brown sugar, and takes a scoop of it and carefully pours it on a cold marble slab. With each pour he makes the dragon come to life: first the serpent body, then the tail.

Then he makes the scales on the dragon.

And then he makes the feet and head.

He even makes the clouds beneath the dragon.

Finally, he pushes a wood rod onto the dragon, and must carefully lift the dragon off the slab and at the same time having the dragon stick to the wooden stick!

And there you go! The girl holding my dragon candy is my cousin Tingting.

Me holding my candy, in front of the giraffe which I used to climb on. 

I also took pictures of the hill that I used to run on when I was young. It sure looks a lot smaller to me now.

This is the "hill" that I used to run up to. Man, it sure seemed  somewhat unimpressive now. But I just remember how hard it was for me get to the top when I was five or six years old.

Mr. Lion doesn't look as nice as he used to.

Remember Mr. Lion? I used to love climbing on top of him when I was a kid. However when I came back to see it in 2009, I realized that the colorful decorations on him are actually broken shards of ceramic. When they laid down the cement to make Mr. Lion, they must have put the broken pieces in before the cement hardened. And of course there were lot of sharp edges. I was quite surprised; I don't remember Mr. Lion as being dangerous to play on at all.
It is interesting how this park has made such a strong impression in me. When I think of this park, I think of me and my parents, walking around, rowing on the pond, getting candy. Going to Rome or Venice was fun, but they were nothing more than exotic tourist attractions to me; they didn't mean that much to me as that park did. Its hard to explain, I almost feel that all the grand European architectures are outwardly amazing, but that little park in an unknown city named Xianyang is inwardly amazing, because it contains all those memories of my parents and my childhood.