The 2025 BCI (Fengyan, China) Stone Appreciation Exhibition and 3rd Anhui Province Fine Penjing Invitational Exhibition is being held on April 24-25, 2025 in Fengyan, China. Having been credited with the concept of training dwarfed potted trees, China introduced the art to the world. The Japanese quickly adapted this art form and developed the art of bonsai using Japanese aesthetics and taste.
For the past several decades, China has once again, introduced their art of penjing to the world and are serious to expand its artistry and understanding. There have been quite a few penjing exhibitions and conventions. There are a lot of people in China and their exhibitions and conventions tend to draw huge crowds on the first day. The opening day is tomorrow and there were over 550 people at the welcome dinner this evening.
I was one of the two foreign invited judges and demonstrators. China is a long distance from Rochester, New York, and took over 30 hours for me and my “supervisor” to safely travel to China, then drive another three hours to the large modern hotel.
There are over 250 huge bonsai in the outdoor exhibition, plus a few smaller and shohin size beautiful treasures. Most of the trees needed to be moved by fork lift trucks because of the size and weight. Judging bonsai in China is serious business. There were a total of 16 judges from China and Mike Siow (Malaysia) and me.
We were allotted three hours to judge each tree. Points were given, with a minimum of 65 to a maximum of 98. There were 29 pages of judging forms and each judge needed to sign each page.
More details and photos tomorrow, I’m tired now and must be ready for my demonstration at 7:30 am.
