Tangjiawan Ancient Woods ranked number one on the List of 10 Most Beautiful Ancient Woods in Guangdong Province, which was recently released by the Forestry Department of Guangdong Province.

The list was made after several rounds of online voting and then expert evaluation, in which Tangjiawan Ancient Woods ranked third in online polls and first in the comprehensive assessment.

Tangjiawan Ancient Woods is located in the elegant and mysterious Lingnan-style garden -- Gongle Garden (共乐园) in Zhuhai's Tangjiawan Town.

The 350-mu (23-hectare) Gongle Garden used to be the private garden of Tang Shaoyi, who served as a diplomat of the late Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and later became the first premier of the Republic of China in 1913. It is now home to 451 century-old trees, including some rare species introduced by Tang from overseas. Examples of these are a Podocarpus tree planted by Tang in 1910 and a lemon-scented gum tree planted by Peking Opera Master Mei Lanfang in 1931.

A camphor tree in Gongle Garden [Photo courtesy Guanhai App]

Elegant and lush Lychee trees are grown on a hill in Gongle Garden, making it a rare botanical garden in the Lingnan area.

As of now, Zhuhai has preserved 27 ancient woods and 1,623 ancient and rare trees. All of these trees have been registered and treated with customized measures.

Officials of the Zhuhai Natural Resources Bureau said that the success of Tangjiawan Ancient Woods in topping the list is a powerful witness to Zhuhai's efforts in protecting ancient and rare trees. They went on to state that these trees are representative of the city's cultivation of ecological civilization.

The bureau will devote more efforts to the promotion and protection of ancient and rare trees. It will also promote and protect forestry ecological culture to cultivate a batch of distinctive villages with beautiful green trees.