China-Japan Friendship Forest

The Sino-Japanese Friendship Forest, located in the Meiling Scenic Area, was built to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the friendly exchanges between Jiangxi Province, China and Gifu County, Japan, as a symbol of friendly cooperation. On June 21, 1988, Jiangxi Province and Gifu Prefecture exchanged memorandums and formally established sister-province relations. On June 18, 1993, it was officially determined that China and Japan will jointly build a friendship forest, covering an area of 100.7 hectares, located in the Washing Medicine Lake in Meiling Scenic Area. The Japanese side will pay 10 million yen for the construction fund, and the Chinese side will pay the cost of land preparation, tree tending and protection, and facility maintenance and management. The completed Sino-Japanese Friendship Forest Monument is 6.8 meters high, 2.4 meters long and 1.65 meters wide. It is located on a pedestal with a height of 1.05 meters and an area of 125 square meters. The pattern of the monument contains the Chinese and Japanese characters, and the image is a blooming flower, which means that the friendship between the Chinese and Japanese people is like a flower, pure, beautiful and never withering. On the white marble on the north and south sides of the monument, Chinese and Japanese steles are engraved. On the marbles on the east and west sides, the introduction of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Forest is engraved in Chinese and Japanese respectively. Since March 1995, seven tree species, including Japanese cherry blossom, Chinese plum blossom, ginkgo biloba, tulip tree, red maple, wetland pine, and Huangshan pine, have been planted, totaling 14,739 trees.