Re-rooted on the mainland

A garden in Xiamen, Fujian province, is famous for its exquisite landscape bonsai, including many varieties that were introduced from Taiwan island, across the Strait.

The garden is managed by Chen Hsiu-yu and her younger brother Chen Tai-ming, two second-generation Taiwan entrepreneurs.

One can gauge its quality from the fact that the highest bid for one rare bonsai here exceeded $200,000.

"But we don't sell the most expensive one because it has been meticulously crafted over generations and has a history of over 100 years. It's a priceless inheritance," said Chen Hsiu-yu, general manager of Mark Agronomy, which her late father established in Xiamen in 1993. They sell others, though.

Chen Hsiu-yu's father Chen Yanhuan arrived in Xiamen sometime in the early 1990s, in search of opportunities like many other business people from Taiwan. During his visit he found that there were hardly any large-scale nurseries in Xiamen; also, the city did not have much to show by way of landscape greening. So, he decided to introduce Taiwan's horticultural and landscape design to the coastal city.