Tour the High-tech World of Modern China

Comparatively few people realize that Beijing's splendid parks and gardens are as much to do with high-technology as the efforts of the city's top-class landscape gardeners and ordinary workers who daily maintain them. Long gone are the days when seeds would be planted and nature left to do the rest. These days, the approach is of necessity almost wholly scientific because of environmental considerations and to ensure that every tree, bush and plant achieves its full potential - all to the delight of the public at large.

China Science and Technology Museum (CSTM)
China's national museum in these fields, the CSTMA occupies 5.8 hectares with a total building area of 65,000 square meters. One of its main tasks is to disseminate knowledge of science and technology among the public, and help increase the scientific and cultural literacy of all citizens.

The museum's educational programs reflect scientific principles and their applications; introduce and conduct new types of social education, in short combining science and knowledge in an interesting way; and encouraging visitors to explore and practice science via exhibits. It attaches great importance to promoting the scientific spirit and spreading scientific knowledge and methods.

Housed in its new exhibition hall are more than 300 examples from aeronautics; astronautics; energy; communications; material science and mechanics; information technology; life science; and environmental science. Several fields of basic science are also covered. Much focus is placed on China's scientific inventiveness and technological pre-eminence in history.

Major attractions include an Astrovision theater, one of the largest in the world. It encapsulates state-of-the-art cinematography engineering which makes viewers feel they are participating in actual events rather than seeing a film.

- China Science and Technology Museum
Open: 9am-4.30pm (Closed Mondays).
Admission: 60 yuan per person; 30 yuan for middle- and primary-school students.
1, Beisanhuan Zhonglu, Xicheng District.
Buses 300, 302, 367, 380, 387 to Kejiguan Sta tion.
Tel: 6237-1177.

Beijing Botanical Garden of the Institute of Botany
This garden, affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Science, is an attractive tourist venue in the western suburbs of Beijing which offers a rich diversity of trees, shrubs and flowers. You will find a highly colorful Perennial Garden and Rose Garden; a beautifully landscaped Arboretum; Chinese Medical Herb Garden; an aquatic area with climbing plants; anti-pollutant plants; and rare and endangered plant life. Environmental protection is a constant theme. Of special interest is a greenhouse complex displaying more than 1,000 Chinese and exotic species, and where the cultivation of tropical and sub-tropical plants is demonstrated.

The garden also serves as a research institution engaged in plant-introduction, acclimatization, breeding, conservation and sustainable use. Also here is the China National Museum of Paleobotany whose herbarium houses the largest collection of such plants in Asia.

Such is the environment of the garden that visitors can take breaks whenever they wish, including in its Garden Bistro. Also available to those who wish to more fully enjoy the complex is a guest-house with restaurant and exercise facilities. Rooms cost between 30 and 80 yuan.

- Beijing Botanical Garden of the Institute of Botany.
Open 8am-5pm.
Admission: 5 yuan.
20, Nanxincun Village, Haidian District.
Buses 333 or 904 to Wofosi Station, or buses 318 and 360 to Zhiwuyuan (Botanical Garden) Station.
Tel: 6259-1431.

Beijing Glorious Land Agricultural Garden
Botany is brought into true focus at Beijing Glorious Land Agricultural Garden, which covers 153 hectares at the foot of Xiangshan Mountain. Here you will find a huge range of botanical delights, as well as livestock. You can enjoy the best of everything by taking any or all of the garden's three conducted tours that cover the ecosystem, hi-tech and agriculture. With the latter, visitors are given a tour through a vegetable workshop where, if they wish, they can plant newly created breeds of vegetables and buy fresh fruits that are totally free of pesticides.

The garden was designed with environmental protection and the recycling of resources firmly in mind. Visitors can witness the harmony between constructions and their surrounding environment. On the ecosystem tour, the plant industry and aquaculture are presented as a whole. Also demonstrated is how the waste from domesticated animals can be used as fertilizer for plants, and how some fruits and the leaves of plants can be employed as animal forage.

This garden is also used as a laboratory for plant-gene technology, animal-embryo technology, and animal-gene-engineering experiments.

- Open: 9am-5pm.
Admission: Adults, 20 yuan; groups, 15 yuan; students, 10 yuan.
Liaogongzhuang, Haidian District.
Buses 336 or 370 from Liaogongzhuang Station.
Tel: 8870-2172.