In Lingnan Penjing, there are three main ways to attach a tree to a rock for landscape penjing. Root-Attaching (附根) Stem-Attaching (附莖) Ride-on-Rock (騎石, similar to Sekijoju) Since the first day I learned landscape penjing, I have been told that root-attaching method is the most challenging, yet, yields the most spectacular scenery in landscape penjing.
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Earlier, I had a few friends asking me about the difference between landscape penjing (shanshui Penjing, 山水盆景 in Chinese), and water-and-land penjing (shuihan penjing, 水旱盆景 in Chinese). It seemed that they were quite confused. Same here indeed, when I first learned bonsai, I always got mixed up between landscape penjing and water-and-land penjing too.

Generally, Chinese penjing (penjing is bonsai in Chinese) can be categorized into three types: tree penjing, landscape penjing (Shanshui Penjing, 山水盆景 in Chinese), and water-and-land penjing (shuihan penjing, 水旱盆景 in Chinese). Unlike tree penjing, which has dwarfed trees be the core and only element in the pot, landscape penjing and water-and-land penjing have rocks playing
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It is said that Chinese penjing is a landscape painting in three dimensions. Unlike Japanese bonsai, Chinese penjing portrays and recreate a scene we find in nature. Similar to Chinese poetry and landscape painting which rely on a very limited amount of content to portray a vast scene in the mind of listener/viewer, Chinese penjing
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Indeed, the land of a water-and-land penjing is very much similar to a forest bonsai (here is a post about My First Forest Bonsai).   It is the extra shorefront and water area that make a water-and-land penjing has a more complex composition.  The overall structural unity of a water-and-land penjing is critical.  Design elements
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Last month, I took a 3-session bonsai class and made my very first water-and-land penjing (penjing is bonsai in Chinese) in the bonsai workshop. Before taking this class, the idea of making my own water-and-land penjing was quite intimidating. I just never thought that I could build a penjing with such complex composition…

It’s crazy how fast my Chinese elm (榆樹 in Chinese) is growing. Last month, I wired this branch of my Chinese elm right before two weeks of rainy days. When I went back and checked the wiring two weeks later, I found that the branch had already been embedded deeply into the bark I quickly
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I took a forest bonsai class earlier this month and this is the first forest bonsai I have ever made. And yes, I love my work and am proud of it.

We were given seven pine trees, a marble slab, a bonsai figurine, a piece of bonsai pot drainage mesh, and a rubber strap.

As mentioned in an earlier post – Chinese Penjing & Japanese Bonsai, one of the major difference between Chinese penjing and Japanese bonsai is the scope of these two related art forms. With the meaning of the words – “bonsai” (盆栽) and “penjing” (盆景), it is clear that while the Japanese bonsai is focusing on
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A few days ago, I showed a set of bonsai figurines of the Eight Immortals to a friend from UK. I didn’t expect him to know anything about the Eight Immortals, and I was about to tell him more of this Chinese folklore. Yet, to my surprise, what my British friend knows of this group
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