Coinciding with the nation’s Arbour Day, Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai planted a Machilus chinensis tree on Small Taipa Hill yesterday, aiming to promote the concept of loving, planting and protecting the green, with the aim of respecting and protecting nature, as well as achieving humanity’s harmonious co-existence with nature, according to a statement by the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) yesterday.
The statement noted that on the annual Arbour Day, March 12, tree planting activities are held across the nation to raise public awareness of environmental protection.
According to the statement, Sam planted a three-metre-high Machilus chinensis sapling in an area of the hill’s hiking trail, officially known as Taipa Pequena 2000 Circuit, where he unveiled a stone plaque, next to the newly planted sapling, engraved with the message of “lush foliage from the same root draws concentric circles together” (枝繁同根生 共畫同心圓), which, according to the statement, means that the motherland and Macau have the same roots and origin and are closely connected, and in pursuit of common advancement and prosperity, Macau and the motherland are jointly creating the Chinese concentric circles.
The 110-metre-high hill in northwest Taipa is known as Taipa Pequena (“Small Taipa”) in Portuguese.
Taipa originally consisted of two islands, Small Taipa and Big Taipa, which came under Portuguese control in the 19th century.
The statement noted that all previous chief executives of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) had planted Machilus chinensis trees in the area, officially known as “celebrity tree planting zone”.
The statement pointed out that belonging to the Lauraceae family, Machilus chinensis is a long-living tree in southern China, and also a native species in Macau. It is tall and straight with elegant appearance and outstanding texture, being an excellent ecological landscape tree species that grows colourful flower buds and young leaves, the statement said.
Sam was accompanied during yesterday’s tree-planting activity by Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) President Chao Wai Ieng, and other top IAM officials, as well as Hoi Lok Man, who chairs the bureau’s Consultative Committee.
Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai (front, right), Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon (front, left), Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) President Chao Wai Ieng (back, left), and IAM Consultative Committee Chairwoman Hoi Lok Man water a newly planted Machilus chinensis sapling on Small Taipa Hill yesterday. – Photo: GCS
