Xu Gang says he has achieved inner peace by growing lotuses germinated from 1,000-year-old seeds, and he hopes more people can appreciate them. Zhu Chengpei / China Daily

Divorce, rats and construction workers - nothing gets in the way of one man's obsession with the past. Zhu Chengpei and Zhang Xiaomin in Dalian, Liaoning province, discover why.

The breeze carries the fragrance of the pink flowers resting their heads above the beds of green leaves that float on the surface of the pond.

"These are descendants of the ancient lotus seeds that traveled in space aboard Shenzhou VII in 2008," says Xu Gang, pointing at the flowers by his side. He has black mud under his fingernails, as he has just finished transplanting some lotus seedlings.

The 59-year-old has been caring for the pond, covering an area of about 2 hectares, in Pulandian, Dalian, for about 19 years, growing lotuses germinated from 1,000-year-old seeds.

In 1989, Xu read an article about ancient lotus seeds in a magazine and learned that a large number of such seeds were dug out from the earth in the early 20th century and in the 1950s. Surprisingly, they could still germinate, though the seed coats were carbonized.

The civil servant at the local administration for industry and commerce started to use all his leisure time researching the ancient lotuses.

In 1995 he met J. William Schopf, a paleobiologist from the University of California, in Xipaozi village where the ancient seeds had been discovered.

In a thesis published in the American Journal of Botany in 2002, Schopf wrote: "A 1,300-year-old lotus fruit, recovered from an originally cultivated but now dry lakebed in northeastern China, is the oldest germinated and directly 14C-dated fruit known. In 1996, we traveled to the dry lake at Xipaozi village, China, the source of the old viable fruits."

Xu asked himself: "A foreign scholar is willing to study the ancient seeds so attentively. Should we just sit idly by?"

He took over a pond about 4 kilometers away from the center of Pulandian and started to plant the ancient seeds.

"Even though it was being called the homeland of the ancient lotus, Pulandian didn't even have lotus pond then," Xu says.

Local chronicles show a big earthquake hit Pulandian in 1475. Xu says it is believed that the earthquake dried up all the lotus pools and made the once-flourishing lotuses disappear.

Knowing he was determined to persist with such an unprofitable project, his wife Guan Li said no and asked for a divorce.

"He told me that as long as we set our minds on something, we can succeed. I knew well how stubborn he could be. Nobody could stop him," Guan says.

However, later, she moved to a simple room beside the pond so she could take better care of Xu and the lotuses.

They were pleased to find that it was not difficult to germinate the seeds. The problem was stopping the rats from getting them. It was only when they put the seeds into baskets and hung them on the wall that they succeeded in protecting them from the rats.

But even when everything seemed to have clicked into place, the lotuses in Xu's park were almost decimated by muskrats in the winter of 2006.

Xu became distraught seeing the muskrats crazily eating the lotus roots under the water and digging holes in the dam that divides the pond in two. With the help of experts from around the country, he ended up catching more than 300 muskrats and now he is ready to fight them any time.

However, it is not only pesky critters that threaten his precious lotuses. The pond is surrounded on three sides by construction sites for the light railway between Dalian and Pulandian, which will eat up a third of the pond when finished.

Huang Guozhen, an executive director of the lotus club under the China Flower Association, says he admires Xu for his efforts to protect and research the ancient lotuses.

According to Huang, ancient lotus seeds have been found in many places in China, but only the ones from Pulandian germinate.

"We can grow many kinds of lotus with better quality and more beautiful flowers, but Xu's lotuses are growing from ancient seeds. They are unique," he says.

Zhou Yongbin, an official with the Communist Party of China Pulandian Committee, says Xu has made efforts that go far beyond his own ability. "The 1,000-year-old lotus seeds still keep excellent vitality. This represents a spirit of striving unceasingly. It is a carrier of local culture.

"Facing a new developing situation, I believe our government will find a new method to protect these plants," says Zhou.

Xu says his dream is to make the ancient lotuses flourish around the country. "The lotus symbolizes purity in China. Through years of growing ancient lotuses, I've found the peace of mind. I hope more people can appreciate them."

Contact the writers through zhangxiaomin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/20/2014 page5)