Shanghai’s trees bring rich colors to autumn

Yuqing Road is a good place for visitors to enjoy autumn in Shanghai. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

Plane tree leaves on Fuxing Road Middle are changing color. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

The leaves of the plane and gingko trees are changing color as the cold autumn winds sweep through the city streets. The leaves have begun falling to the ground, turning some streets into attractive golden carpeted walkways, a delightful sight for residents and visitors.

In the past, at this time of year, Shanghai's street cleaners have been sweeping the streets three times a day, keeping the sidewalks and roads free of leaves.

But last fall, city authorities decided to trial an experiment and so the leaves on the popular historically and culturally significant streets, Wukang and Yuqing roads, were left largely unswept. The trial ran for two weeks and proved enormously popular with people from all over the city thronging there to enjoy and photograph the attractive gold-leafed streets.

This year, the Xuhui district authority extended the leaves trial to Hunan Road and part of Fuxing Road West. The leaves are also being left unswept on Xinling and Fudu roads in Minhang district and Huaxi and Tongbai roads in Putuo district.

Wukang Road, originally Route Ferguson in the former French concession, runs in a slightly curved north to south shape for 1.18 kilometers. It is packed with history and culture and among the elegant and noteworthy homes found here are Dingxiang Garden, the private mansion of Li Hongzhang, an influential politician of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Wukang Building, originally the I.S.S Normandy Apartment, one of the many striking buildings designed by the Hungarian architect L.E. Hudec, and the former residence of the acclaimed Chinese writer Ba Jin.

Yuqing Road is a quieter neighborhood, a peaceful street lined with plane trees and where a good selection of small shops and restaurants offers visitors plenty of choice.

Fuxing Road West at dusk presents a wonderfully romantic scene, the street covered with gold plane tree leaves and occasionally candles flickering in restaurant windows. Locals can be seen walking their dogs along the surrounding streets and the stately old villas.

Here is where one can find The Cloister, a Spanish style mansion built originally for a British businessman, and the Rose Villa, once the home of Lan Ni, the second wife of Sun Ke, Sun Yat-sen's son.

Hunan Road is another elegant street lined with trees and dignified villas from another era of Shanghai.

While the leaves are a wonderfully colorful addition to the city streets they also play an important part in nature. A botanist with the Shanghai Gongqing Forest Park explained that when the leaves fall and decompose on the ground they become an important fertilizer and source of nutrition for other plants and trees.

There are more than plane trees in the city - the tall refined gingko trees are also very much part of Shanghai's streets and parks. The Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau has listed nine key spots around the city where gingko trees can be seen at their best.

At Zhongshan Park ginkgo trees can be found near the stone bridge close to the main entrance. There are two clusters of ginkgo trees in front of the Shanghai Concert Hall facing Jinling Road Middle. Other groves of ginkgoes can be seen along People's Avenue in People's Square, Shiminyi Road, Xiangyang Park, Gushu Park in Anting, Jiading district, Century Park, Lujiazui Central Green Space, and Gucheng Park near the Yuyuan Garden.

Autumn has also been bringing its colors to other trees in the city, water elms, burning bushes, Boston ivy and Japanese maples are also making their mark.

Botanists say that there are more than 40 species of trees to be found in Shanghai and most will be shedding leaves until late December this year.

Wang Yuqin is a senior engineer with the Shanghai Botanical Garden and said that the diversity of the species of trees in the city adds to the rich fall colors. The trees and plants that turn from green earliest in the season include water elms, plane trees, burning bushes, persimmons and Boston ivy. Next to change color are ginkgoes, Japanese and red maples, Chinese tallows, hibiscus and spindle trees. Last to change are pistacia chinensis, nutgalls, lychee shrubs and Chinese sweet gums.

The leaves on mature trees and plants change color more readily than young plants, and trees and plants that are in poor health will see their leaves change color earlier than healthy trees. And there is a range of colors that the green leaves meld into. In Shanghai, some of the trees that will produce red leaves are Japanese and red maples, burning bushes, persimmons and water elms. The leaves on sweet gums, hibiscus, Chinese tallows, pistacia chinensis and nutgalls can appear both red and yellow. Gingkoes, plane trees, magnolias, rhododendrons Chinese tulip trees and lychee shrubs turn distinctly yellow while other leaves, like those of the dawn redwood and cypress trees, turn brown.