BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua)
-- About three km from the Forbidden
City, the heart of China's
capital, a small vegetable garden has
just entered growing
season.
Vegetable seedlings are
starting to sprout on the roof
of an old building in one of
the city's ancient courtyard
neighborhoods.
"I grow more
than 20 kinds of fruits and vegetables
in my rooftop garden," said Zhang
Guichun, a 56-year-old Beijing
native.
His garden's prime
growing season will begin in June,
when cucumber vines will creep over
the frames he's built on the
rooftop, giving him shade to rest
in during the summer and ripe
fruit in early
fall.
Zhang's garden also
features a small fish pond and
several birdcages.
"When the
weather becomes warmer, I'll put
a couple of red carp in the
pond and move my birds into the
cages," Zhang said.
The idea
of building the rooftop garden
occurred to Zhang in 2007, when he
heard that a real estate developer
was planning to demolish the two-story
building he was living
in.
Although the developer's
plans failed to fully materialize,
part of the building's second
floor did end up getting removed,
leaving an empty and flat area
full of rubble.
"I thought
it was a waste of space and
looked very ugly," Zhang
said.
Zhang was a fan of
playing online games at the time,
particularly one game that allowed him
to build his own "virtual garden."
The game inspired him to create
a garden to beautify the demolished
rooftop.
"I thought, 'why not?'
I could have a real vegetable
garden on that deserted roof," he
said.
It took Zhang a
while to bring his garden to
fruition, as he was not particularly
experienced with real-life gardening. For
the first two years, his plants
bore little fruit.
"One year,
I harvested watermelons the size of
a ping-pong ball," Zhang said
mockingly. "My neighbors laughed at me
and tried to persuade me to
give up my plan."
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