Yang Mei

yangmei_szdaily@163.com

WHEN Sushil Asar from India kicked off his first trip to the city of Shaoguan on Saturday at the Shaoguan Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, he was immediately attracted to the pictures depicting the city’s magnificent natural scenery and decided to come back next time to explore more.

“The city is beautiful and well-planned. I love the different scenic spots in the city. I already made up my mind to go to Danxia Mountain next time. My friend is a landscape photographer, so I will come back with him during the water season to take pictures,” he said.

Asar is a consultant at IBM’s Shenzhen office, and he has been living and working in Shenzhen for 10 years. Asar joined Shenzhen Daily on a two-day trip to Shaoguan, during which he visited exhibitions, parks and South China Tigers in the South China Tiger Breeding and Research Base.

Asar told Shenzhen Daily that he enjoyed visiting the urban planning exhibition hall as he learned a lot about the city.

“The exhibition shows me the whole picture of Shaoguan in a short period of time and I could see where the city center and industrial areas are, which are well-planned,” he said. “It was also fascinating to find out that there were people discovered here 130,000 years ago.”

Asar said that he also enjoyed the tranquil scenery in Shaozhou Park and Wujiang River. “The park view is great with its beautiful landscape, a waterfall and a bridge. It was nice to see people having fun along the river,” he said.

In Shaozhou Park, Asar also interacted with a local resident from whom he learned different pronunciations of the Chinese character “水” in Hakka, Cantonese and Mandarin.

When he visited the South China Tiger Breeding and Research Base on Sunday, Asar learned basic knowledge about the critically endangered species and gave the government a thumbs-up in its efforts to protect the tigers. “I learned that there are three South China Tiger research and breeding bases in China. What the government is doing is phenomenal. They did a fantastic job in the conservation of these tigers,” he said.

“I just wish I should have brought my children here. They would enjoy this because it’s for them to learn these things. I hope next time I can bring them to visit,” Asar added.