About this journey
Travelers say that Li Zhenhao's "Downhill Studio" is not only a handmade crafts studio and café, but also a beautiful Yunnan plant specimen museum. What's more special is that she collected all the specimens herself, so each plant has its story. Lao Shuai from the cycling group said that we need to set off half an hour earlier for cycling, because some people pass by Li Zhenhao's place and can't move on, lingering for half an hour. (His cycling activity "Cangshan Erhai | Visiting Villages and People" passes through the village at the foot of Wuwei Temple, which is where Li Zhenhao's studio is located.) Moreover, the hospitable Li Zhenhao always prepares tea and snacks for passing guests, allowing them to rest a while and look at various strange fruits and plant specimens. It's truly pleasant.
"I am Li Zhenhao. I often travel with friends to various places in Yunnan. Most of the time, I look for plants and their fruits, collect them to make specimens, and present them in different forms. This is a great joy of my hiking trips."
The joy of the mountains is not just about mushrooms. I like to take leisurely walks in the forest because of the slow pace. From mushrooms to flowers, leaves, and fruits, the forest offers enough reasons to spend a whole day exploring, even just a short distance.
Different peaks of Cangshan show different plant growth states in different seasons. During different times of the year, we also explore different peaks around Dali. Yunnan spans eight latitude zones and has different climate environments such as forests, wetlands, and grasslands. Each climate environment has unique plants. For example, the huge leguminous vine brought back from Mangshi, the sword-leaf namnu brought from Jinsha River, the bird of paradise with blue seeds brought from Mengding, the gentiana brought from the Tibetan area of Luton, and the high-altitude fir from Cangshan. The magnolia fruit brought from Yunlong, as well as the aromatic wintergreen, pine cones, and fir cones commonly found on the west slope of Cangshan. In the forest, there are iron lotus, wood lotus, various shellfish fruits, lichens, mosses, and so on.
Thus came this activity: pick up naturally fallen fruits and plants from various forests, create complete plant decorations to take home, decorate their homes with the forests of Yunnan and Dali, just like collecting leaves hanging on the car before driving off and some special memories.
Note:
Since the forest materials we use are mostly self-collected from Dali and surrounding areas, the quantity and variety of materials are not consistent. Even within the same species, each plant fruit in nature is unique, so each artwork will be slightly different.
Photos and videos
