人民公园

This guide to People's Park in Guangzhou asks why a site that answered only to imperial power for more than a thousand years, home to provincial governors, a Southern Ming emperor and Qing dynasty viceroys, was torn down and turned over to the public in 1921. It follows Sun Yat-sen's proposal, the Cornell-trained architect Yang Xizong who laid out its lawns and pavilion, and the roughly two hundred thousand residents who turned out for the opening of what was first called First Park. Look for the pair of white jade lions near the entrance, carved in Zhaoqing more than three hundred years ago.