【Global Vision】
Liu Jun, a correspondent of Guangming Ribao in Brussels
Photo by Dong Bo Guangming Daily reporter Liu Jun/Guangming Pictures
Not long ago, Dong Bo, chairman and founder of Paradise Zoo in Belgium and a well-known friendly person, sent a letter to President Xi Jinping, recalling the opening ceremony of the Paradise Zoo Giant Panda Park attended by President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan during their visit to Belgium in March 2014. On June 20, Chinese Ambassador to Belgium Cao Zhongming came to Paradise Zoo and personally handed President Xi Jinping's reply letter to Dong Bo.
President Xi Jinping replied to his letter expressing his pleasure to learn that the purple magnolia planted at Paradise Zoo had bloomed and that the two giant pandas that were China's "messengers of friendship" were also thriving. The reply said that China's unswerving path of high-quality development with ecological priority, green and low-carbon will provide more opportunities for the world and make greater contributions to the progress of all mankind. The letter also encouraged Dong Bo to continue to actively promote Sino-Belgian and China-EU friendship.
The reporter interviewed Dong Bo a few years ago to listen to his story of his friendship with China since childhood and the construction of a Chinese garden in Paradise Zoo. He often said, "I have a little 'Chinese dream'", that is, the yearning for a beautiful China and the love of Chinese history and culture.
Dong Bo at the "Tianbao" naming ceremony. Photo by Guangming Daily reporter Liu Jun/Guangming Pictures
In the town of Brugelette, Hainaut, Belgium, there is a paradise zoo known as "the most beautiful zoological and botanical garden in Europe". The park includes the largest "China Garden" in Europe, and the "Giant Panda Park" for Chinese giant pandas who came to live here in 2014. In June 2016, the giant panda "Haohao" gave birth to a male cub "Tianbao" for the first time. On August 8, 2019, "Haohao" gave birth to the dragon and phoenix fetus "Baoji" and "Baomei".
The Buddhist temples and meditation pavilions in the "China Garden" are scattered, and the water pavilion stands by the water, and the Chinese watches, archways and cloisters with a strong Chinese water village style reflect each other. Specially shipped from China, stone lions, bronze bells, and graceful bonsai artworks are intertwined with rigidity and softness. Wild ducks and cranes strolling in the park, a few frog calls, a few bells, making tourists feel like they are in the water town of southern China. There are four centenarian trees in the "Chinese Garden", and several tree houses are cleverly built around the waist of the trees. Dong Bo sometimes worked late in the garden and spent the night here.
It is particularly worth mentioning that Dong Bo asked people to engrave the three words "Chinese Dream" on the arch of the "China Garden" and the giant bronze bell in the garden. He said with emotion that the Chinese dream itself is a "grand dream", while his personal Chinese dream is a "small dream", but China's development and prosperity is an opportunity that the world can share.
Dong Bo said to himself
I'm Eric Dongbo. MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO, I FOUNDED PAIRIDAIZA ZOO. The name I use is the word "heaven" used by the Persians in BC. At that time, the Greek army invaded the east and discovered the Persian "hanging garden" located in the present-day Two Rivers Valley, where all kinds of plants, all kinds of animals and princes and grandchildren lived, which was as beautiful as heaven. THE PERSIAN LANGUAGE CALLS THIS "PAIRIDAIZA", WHICH MEANS A ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL GARDEN PROTECTED BY A WALL. I kept the original words because I wanted to pursue the roots of culture. This brings me to my relationship with China, this great ancient civilization.
My father was a surgeon and my mother was an art history teacher. They both loved Chinese sculpture, temples, paintings, poetry and architecture. Since I was a child, I have listened to them tell Chinese stories, read some books about China with paintings, and learned about great Chinese poets such as Li Bai, as well as classical Chinese masterpieces like "Journey to the West". This is how I spent my childhood surrounded by Chinese culture.
The "Chinese Dream" archway in the "China Garden". Photo by Guangming Daily reporter Liu Jun/Guangming Pictures
Later I founded Paradise Zoo. I think that in the 21st century, more Westerners should understand and perceive China, so I came up with the idea of building an original Chinese garden. Chinese royal gardens are magnificent and solemn and symmetrical, while China's private gardens are particular about seeing the big from the small, that is, using subtle, tortuous, suggestive and other techniques in a limited space to inspire people's senses. Most of China's private forests are centered on the surface of the water and scattered with buildings around them. Retired officials take advantage of such an environment to cultivate themselves and entertain themselves. This garden design shows their elegant temperament and is full of rich book atmosphere. I invited gardeners from Shanghai to build the Chinese Garden in Belgium, and the personnel and materials came from China. Chinese gardens are inhabited by people, and we live here with animals. Therefore, it is necessary to ask Chinese designers to arrange animals according to different buildings, such as pandas, red-crowned cranes, turtles, monkeys, waterfowl, etc. in the Chinese garden.
When I founded Paradise Zoo, I didn't really know anything about management, management and flora and fauna. From 1983 to 1992, I was a lawyer. I set up a company to provide consulting to small business owners. In the process, I've found that my clients' lives are much more interesting than mine, and I still give them advice. One weekend in the late autumn of 1992, my secretary's father-in-law asked me to help negotiate the sale of a monastery. When we came here (where the zoo is located), we saw only ruins, and although it was desolate, the colorful fallen leaves and ponds made me fall in love at first sight.
Back in Brussels, I threw the company keys to my secretary and said, "It's all for you, I'm going to do something else!" "I invested all my personal possessions and the money I borrowed from my brothers and parents into the construction of "Paradise". I believe that our ancestors all lived in "paradise", where there were no wars and famines, only equality and fraternity, which was the so-called "golden age". As a result of various mistakes, humanity was banished from heaven. I thought it would be great if we could create a paradise on earth, plant all kinds of flowers and plants, raise all kinds of animals, let people forget their daily troubles, relax and feel the joy of "heaven".
In 1993, I spent a year looking for a bank loan. Maybe my idea of building "paradise" was too crazy, and the banks closed their doors to me. I realized that I had to find a banker as crazy as I was to get a loan. Later, I happened to meet a peer who had just become the head of a small bank. Probably he is an idealist like me. I provided him with what I thought was a complete plan (and it turned out that reality and ideals were not the same at all). After reading it, he readily agreed to the loan, and this is the story that followed.
The water pavilion in the "China Garden". Photo by Guangming Daily reporter Liu Jun/Guangming Pictures
In 1997, I saw a Chinese garden in Montreal, Canada. I think that now that we are so poor and in debt, when we have money, we must ask the Chinese engineering team that built this garden to also build a Chinese garden for me. In 2003, I contacted the Shanghai engineering team that built the China Garden for Montreal and chased them to Shanghai to "seek a teacher". In August 2005, Chinese engineers and technicians began to work. Our "Chinese Garden" is not built once, but is renovated and expanded every year. From 2005 to 2006, the main project was completed, and from 2010 to 2011, the "Yuyuan Tea House" in Shanghai was rebuilt. The beam on the second floor of our tea house adopts the traditional Chinese architectural technique of tenon and mortise structure! For many years, the "Chinese Garden" has been a popular attraction for Westerners who have not been to China, or who are temporarily unable to visit China, to experience the beauty of Chinese gardens. That's why I emphasize that the Chinese Garden must be "the same as China".
The arch of the "Chinese Garden" is engraved with the "Chinese Dream". I placed a statue of Qin Shi Huang in a prominent position at the entrance of the "China Garden" to tell people about the long history and culture of China. I have my own "Chinese dream", which is my respect and love for thousands of years of Chinese civilization.
I was born in 1960. It can be said that Belgium was quite wealthy when I was a child. In the 60s of the 20th century, the steel and coal industries were the foundation and support of Belgian industry. At the end of the 70s of the 20th century, China began to reform and open up, third world countries began to develop, and the world changed more and more rapidly. It is not that the standard of living of the people of Europe has fallen, but that the relative position of Europe, such as Belgium, is declining. Now, Europeans worry about how Europe can stand on the world stage. China is a world agricultural power, Chinese diligent efforts, every year to train engineers and technicians, far more than Europe. I found that if I asked a Chinese colleague to make a plan before leaving work, he could take it out early the next morning – they were still working at night! Europeans are already pitifully short of this kind of hard work. I remember when I was a child, there was an advertisement for Japanese cars, when Europeans looked down on Japanese cars, not to mention Chinese products. Now, no one in the world can leave Chinese products! There are more and more high-precision Chinese products.
I am a supporter of European integration. Europe is a magical continent that has been ravaged by brutal wars. Unfortunately, nationalism and xenophobia are now emerging in some European countries in such a land. You think, if everyone pulls the quilt on themselves and leaves others cold, it will be difficult to sleep in the same bed. How can a great Europe be created without unity and dispersion of forces?! My European dream is to set up a European government without social and tax competition between European countries, coordinate balanced development among its members, and take its rightful place in the world. This is my expectation as a European.
I am full of hope and imagination for the Belt and Road Initiative. I have participated in the Belt and Road Forum, collected a lot of information, and talked to many people. It's a great project. China hopes to rebuild the Silk Road so that countries along the route can benefit each other and achieve a win-win situation. China will certainly be able to achieve this great goal. Personally, we now have 5 pandas, and I have always wanted to make the Chinese golden monkey a home in our "China Park". I believe that if there is one place outside of China that deserves to house golden monkeys, it is Paradise Zoo in Belgium! I will tell tourists the story of the "Monkey King" Monkey King in "Journey to the West".
Guangming Daily(2023.06.29.14)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily