As early winter paints the ginkgo groves in dazzling shades of gold, people find themselves drawn into its charm. Some sit and chat under the canopy, others snap photos. But what truly sets the scene apart are the poems hanging like ornaments from strings tied between tree branches - it’s nice to pause to read verses swaying gently in the breeze.

Even Liu, a sanitation worker taking care of the grove, couldn’t resist. During her break, she leaned her bamboo broom against a trunk and picked up a poem to read aloud: “Mom chased me out with a rolling pin, but I turned myself into dough and slipped right back in through the crack of the door.” She couldn’t help but laugh.

The poems were the brainchild of the Sunflower Poetry Club from Modern Experimental Primary School, who recently held a poetry party right here among the gingko trees. Founded in 2016 by Xu Zhihua, a PE teacher with a passion for verse, the club has nurtured young poets for nearly a decade. Over the years, students’ works have been published in newspapers and magazines more than 200 times. The 200-plus poems on display were selected from a decade’s worth of creativity - a proof that poetry is very much alive and growing right here in the heart of the grove.