Los Angeles native Randall Bartlett sat under the rooftop of a traditional Chinese scholar’s studio, occasionally turning a page of his book. The scene was in the reopened Liu Fang Yuan garden at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens. For him, the garden brings to life the Chinese philosophies he learned from books.

Phillip E. Bloom, director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies, said the idea for Liu Fang Yuan goes back to the 1980s with the initial aim of creating a collection of Chinese plants, but after research, they realized plants alone were not sufficient to demonstrate the essence of a Chinese garden. Eventually, it was decided to model a garden on 16th and 17th century scholarly retreats(隐居处)in Suzhou.

The decision was made partly due to the fame of Suzhou classical gardens, but also because similarities were found between the Huntington and Suzhou gardens. Bloom said that Henry Huntington, founder of the Huntington Library, was a successful US businessman who used his fortune to collect rare books, artworks and to create gardens. “Many Suzhou gardens were also created by rich people who tried to pursue a scholarly lifestyle,” he added.

To preserve the character of the Suzhou gardens, the Huntington Library sought help from Suzhou, giving rise to collaboration between US and Chinese architects, contractors and designers. In all stages of construction, artisans(工匠)from Suzhou came to work on details of the venue.

After three years of expansion from 2018 to 2020, Liu Fang Yuan reopened to the public with 4.6 hectares of new landscape, making it one of the largest classical-style Chinese gardens in the world. The additions include courtyards displaying penjing, a scholar’s studio, a pavilion(亭子)situated at the garden’s highest point, etc.

Now, it is meaningful to see how people from local communities interact with the garden. “A lot of volunteers come to different lectures and exhibitions about Chinese culture hat we hold regularly,” Bloom said. By exposing its visitors to arts and literature, Liu Fang uan goes beyond international boundaries and bridges the cultural gaps between the two ountries.

Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, U.S.A., is in the central part of the state, on the Santa Fe River, which flows into the Rio Grande 35 kilometres west of the city. More than two thousand metres above sea level, it lies in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with the Ortiz Mountains to the southeast.

The opera house in Santa Fe, is one of the most beautiful in the United States. It is small and open, with one roof over the stage where singers perform and another roof over part of the audience. This opera house in the mountains is one of the best in the country. It may seem surprising because performances are only given during seven weeks in the summer, and because Santa Fe is a very small city.

One reason why the Santa Fe Opera is so good is that it attracts many excellent young singers. They all hope to sing in famous opera houses like Metropolitan in New York someday, and they work hard to become well-known during the summer. The musicians and directors are experts who come from the best orchestras and operas in the country. They enjoy working there during their vacations because they like Santa Fe, which is near both the mountains and the desert. It is very beautiful there in summer.

The state government of New Mexico advertises the Santa Fe Opera in newspapers all over the country, and a great many tourists come to New Mexico because of the opera. All the seats in the theater are sold out for every show.

There is only one thing that some people do not like about the Santa Fe Opera, and that is the cold weather. Because the theater is open, performances can't start before it gets dark at nine o'clock in the evening, and then the mountain air becomes very cool. Sometimes people complain about the cold air, but because the operas are good, these people come back again —wearing warm coats.

RG-the Rio Grande SFR=the Santa Fe River OM=the Ortiz Mountains

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A thorough transformation of the area around the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris (巴黎圣母院) will open it up toward the Seine River and help millions of visitors flow through more easily while also reducing the effects of climate change, city officials said on Monday.

Notre-Dame, which was damaged by a fire in 2019, is closed to visitors and is still being rebuilt, with plans to partially reopen in 2024, just in time for the Olympic Games in Paris.

The redesign of the area surrounding Notre-Dame, which leaves the long, rectangular (矩形的) stone square in front of the cathedral mostly untouched, will not greatly change the neighborhood. But Paris officials said that the planned changes would improve visitors’ experiences and make the city more resilient (有承受力的) in the face of rising temperatures.

The redesign envisions (预想) removing fencing to extend and combine parks around Notre-Dame into one, making neighboring streets more pedestrian-friendly and planting over 30 percent more vegetation in the area, including trees to provide additional shade. Plans also call for transforming a parking lot that is currently underneath the cathedral’s main square into an underground walkway that opens up onto the banks of the Seine and provides access to a welcome center and an archaeological museum, officials said.

The new design includes a cooling system that will send a five-millimeter-thin sheet of water streaming down the square in front of the cathedral during heat waves, enough to lower temperatures by several degrees without flooding the area — and to give tourists a fantastic backdrop for their photos, officials added.

Reverend Gilles Drouin, an adviser to the Paris archbishop(大主教), said that the goal was to “decompartmentalize (减少划分) spaces that were limiting it somewhat”. “I am very pleased that the tragedy of the fire will enable us to recreate physical and symbolic ties between the capital and its urban environment,” Father Drouin said.