In the busy neighborhood with small houses between trees and roads, I live with my family in a big city, where I have spent my whole life so far living here. I love my home here, the neighborhoods, the streets, the city. My city is a young but rapidly expanding area full of energy and fresh new ideas. I feel lucky to grown up in this city with my family always supporting me.

However, I am a person who loves nature. It may seem contradictory for me, who lives in a big, bright city, but maybe that is why my heart is drawn to nature. Because nature is rare in cities, it is precious and stands out among the blocks of buildings and streams of streets. Nonetheless, it is really lucky that Shenzhen is a city with lots of green parks.

There is a big park near my home, which has lychee trees, a kind of fruit tree, everywhere in the park. In fact, the park in named after those sweet, red fruits. My parents used to take me there to play and appreciate outdoor activities. My favorite activity in the park was climbing the trees, especially lychee trees, because they were short and their branches bend in patterns which makes them extremely easy to scale. I remember, as a kid, my little hands would wrap around the highest branch I could reach with my feet stepping on the lower branch. I would pull myself up and twist my body to sit on the branches. Every time when I managed to climb onto a tree, I would feel proud. I liked to sit there, swinging my legs and looking at the distance landscape, with my hands touching the rough but living barks. That was my earliest memories with nature.

As I grew up, I began finding nature more and more attractive. Every time when I was with nature—on a mountain, in the countryside, or even just gardening the plant on the balcony—I felt peaceful and relaxed. My mother then encouraged me to go camping in nature during a holiday. That was when I first found the true instinct of nature in myself.

I remember as we were camping on a mountainside, a little bonfire was lit in the middle of the meadow. We sat around it on the grass, warming our hands near the orange flames, with total darkness in the surroundings, no artificial lights, and only the sky full of stars and the dancing bonfire illuminating the field. We took turns singing songs that ran through everyone’s ears with sounds so pure and clear in the darkness and silence of nature. That was one of the best moments in my life; I was so relaxed and enjoying myself, and nothing disturbed my mind.

From such experiences, I learned nature has the power to grab people’s hearts, especially when they are surrounded by nature, with no pollution, no noise, and no rapid city lifestyle, and where everywhere around them are trees, river, ands clouds. In those days, lost in nature, I was the happiest bird flying free in the forests. Every experience with nature, from the river running, insects singing, and the fresh smell of wood after raining, has been carved deeply in my mind; I can never forget those feelings.

Now, back in the bustling city, I miss nature. But I also cannot forget the green park in the middle of concrete and cement that had opened a door in my heart. I also feel grateful and lucky that my parents gave me the chances to see the greater world outside the city. I will always love my friend nature.