Shanghai Botanical Garden

This guide to the Shanghai Botanical Garden explains penjing, the art on display in the trees around you, and why its masters refuse the wire-and-force shortcut that shapes an ordinary bonsai. You'll meet the two men who defined the Shanghai school of the craft, one who began shaping mountains out of shallow pots in the 1960s, and hear what actually separates a penjing tray from a potted plant. Stand close to a piece and look for the tiny figures at its base.