Rongxing Garden Park 榮星花園

Another Taipei park that we visited during our weekly nature class was Rongxing Garden Park  榮星花園 located between Jianguo N.Rd 建國北路 to the west, Longjiang Rd 龍江路 to the east, Minsheng E.Rd 民生東路 to the south and Wuchang St. 武昌街 to the north. The closest MRT station is the Zhongshan Junior High School Station 中山國中捷運站.
Interesting thing is - the park was privately owned and to visit it one had to pay an entrance fee. In 1989 the area was bought by Taipei City and the park became a public one.

In the north-west corner of the park there is a nice open-air swimming pool. I've never visited it, but many of my friends go there to cool down during summer. I wish we would have gone there last Tuesday! It was sooo hot!

Our nature class concentrated around a pond that's located in the south-east part of the park. Until spring of 2015 this pond used to be a dump site for local residents. At night they would throw their garbage and old appliances into it. In the beginning of 2015 a few environmental and neighborhood groups came together to work on the clean up and make the pond a fresh and clean environment for all the little creatures. Our nature class teacher also took part in this community clean-up.

The area around the pond in famous for fireflies which come out in April/May. Of course this was not only the wrong time of the day, but also wrong time of the year for us to observe fireflies.

The teacher has also prepared nice materials explaining to the kids the importance of making artificial islands on the ponds. Thanks to the island in Rongxing Park the little creatures and many insects can breed and live peacefully without the danger of being attacked and eaten by larger predators, like cats and humans.

Walking around the pond the teacher showed us some really fun seeds:

Snapdragon root - Ruellia tuberosa - 塊根蘆莉草

We also looked up close at some trees:

This one looks like soldier's uniform.

Griffith's ash

This powder-puff tree's flowers open
 only in the evening and fall off by early morning.

Only female papaya plants bear fruits.

We also met this big bird which had one leg shorter than the other ...

For snack everyone got a delicious pineapple popsicle made by the teacher.

Kids also had time to play in the trees.