Revisiting the Botanical Garden of Baguio City

The Botanical Garden of Baguio City has become famous among local tourists as a place where they can have their photos taken with old Igorot women in traditional garb. And… that’s it. I confess to having relegated the place to the back of my mind after those visits during elementary school for field trips. Since then, I pretty much ignored it.

And then, I got to get another glimpse of it a couple of years back when, in our annual tree-planting activity, our Office was assigned to plant pine tree seedlings inside the Garden. I got a fresh perspective, then. And it was further reinforced when I saw the developments that the City Government, through the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO), has been implementing (albeit slowly but surely) around the place.

So when one of my BFFs came home for vacation from Canada, we decided to visit the Botanical Garden.

Sharing some photos of the place, and hopefully to entice you to look beyond the facade, and step past the carved stone “gate”, and into a small patch of nature in the City of Pines.

(By the way, September is the birthday month of Baguio as a charter city, so I thought it should be fitting to have a post about Baguio City.)

So what will you see when you visit the Botanical Garden of Baguio City? I’ll narrow it down to three.

1. Nature park fixtures

The CEPMO has ongoing projects to preserve the City’s parks, and the Botanical Garden, being one of the flagship parks of the City, is one of the prioritized areas. Sticking to the nature park theme, it was surprisingly greener and lusher than I thought it would be. (Goes to show how long I have ignored this place, huh.)

It is a green space, and good for taking walks and brisk hikes. Older folks may find some of the terrain difficult to navigate, but there are several trails prepared that are friendlier. It’s just a matter of looking for them. And watching your step.

It also has some installations that added character to the Park. This bronze sculpture is by one of Baguio’s own, artist Ben-hur Villanueva, and it is a representation of the “Builders of Baguio”. The figures represented the original builders of the City, specifically the Igorots (or natives of Cordillera), the Americans, the Chinese and the Japanese. It’s a clear acknowledgment that the City was borne out of the joint efforts of many.

Personally, I think it is a good place to relax and catch your breath. Time seems to slow down when you enter the Park. The air is fresh,thanks to the trees filtering any smoke or smog coming from the road. Traffic noise is also minimized, which lets you have time to hear your own thoughts.

 

Oh, and on the evening my friend and I were there, it appears it’s a choice date spot.

2. Installations representing city sisterhoods of Baguio City

Baguio City has forged several alliances and sisterhood pacts with various cities in other countries, and the most enduring ones, from what I can deduce, are those in China, South Korea, Japan, Canada and the United States. In strategic parts of the park were built various structures that represent or symbolize these sisterhoods.

This Friendship Pavilion, for example, commemorates the relationship of Baguio City with Hangzhou City in the People’s Republic of China.

There was another gazebo representing the relationship of Baguio with the City of Vaughn of Ontario Canada. As for the sisterhood with the city of Taebaek in South Korea, it was s small park, with, yep, its own pavilion.

The city of Vallejo in California was also represented… by a miniature of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.

3. The Japanese Tunnel

The sisterhood with Japan cities was (cleverly, if I may add) integrated into the Japanese Tunnel, another one of the recent more popular attractions of the Botanical Garden.

The path leading up to the Japanese tunnel was lined on both sides by small Buddha figures.

And then the entrance to the Japanese Tunnel is marked by a huge torii or red gate.

Looking back, it might not have been the best idea to enter the Japanese Tunnel at close to 7pm. Rog and I were there around the time, there was no one else about, it was dark, there were no lights at the tunnel, and the guardhouse was also empty. This raised questions in my mind, but we ignored it because we were already there, so we might as well go in, with only our mobile phones as our light source.

It was eerieeeee. Haha! After going in and walking into the darkness, we turned back because we were afraid we might get lost. Then we looked at the map at the entrance again, and realized that it was only a short distance, so we entered again, and made a full circuit until we came back out the way we entered.

Some background:

The Japanese Tunnel is believed to have been constructed between 1942 and 1945. The Japanese Imperial Army built this tunnel and used it primarily as bunkers, as means of transporting and storage of war materials and supplies, and as treatment centers.

The walkway of the Japanese Tunnel is 150 meters long, with its mouth at the Botanical Garden, and then stretching to parts of the barangays of Pacdal, Outlook Drive, and Cabinet Hill. They close off those areas, though, probably to avoid people wandering off and getting lost in the tunnels.

If you walk through the walkways, you’ll pass through 30 cubicles, which are high and deep enough to hold several people all at once.

I felt a certain degree of gratification knowing that, at least one of the trees in this Park, was planted by me. It definitely beats planting something in a place that is abandoned and not taken care of. I hope the seedlings we planted will soon grow and provide more shelter and greens for the Botanical Garden.

I admit that I haven’t fully explored the entirety of the Park. The several times I was there, the Art Gallery of the Baguio Arts Guild was closed, so I wasn’t able to check it out. I wasn’t even able to properly spend some time at the Japanese Filipino Peace Memorial Park. (When I go there, I’d make sure to bring with me an Arashi uchiwa. Just because.)

Plus I didn’t have much time to go around after the tree-planting, because we had to head back to work. Maybe, in the coming weeks, I’d be able to swing by for a more leisurely, and longer, visit.

To get there, you can:

• Take a cab, and just tell the cab driver to take you to the Botanical Garden, which is located along the Leonard Wood Road.
• Take any of the commuter jeepneys plying routes that pass by the Botanical Garden. They include jeepneys bound for Mines View, Pacdal, Navy Base, Bekkel, Country Club, and Tuding in Itogon.

There are no entrance fees to the Park. The Php20.00 paid to the natives at the Gate are for the picture-taking, and not the entrance fee.