A very interesting part of the Zhongshan, Guangdong visit of the 19 members of the Philippine Zhongshan Federal Association was the trip to the Foraminiferal Sculpture Park. It was an educational trip that makes one feel as if one is in a time machine travelling along meticulously sculptured foraminiferas or tiny one-celled organisms that lived on earth from various eras dating as far back as about 330 million years ago (Carboniferous period) and the beginning about 200 million years ago or Jurassic period.

Foraminifera or forams have lived on earth for 330 million years. There are 4,000 species and over 40,000 are in the fossil record. It is found in every ocean and subsist on microscopic algae, bacteria, and waste. The single-celled organisms, which are normally too small for the naked eye, create their own custom-made skeletons by extracting calcium carbonate from the sea water and cementing the particles together with enzymes secreted in their bodies. It provides food to snails, crustaceans, and small fish. Their shells vary from simple tubes and spheres to very elaborate multi-chambered spirals and long striated pods. When forams die, their shells form layers on the sea floor.

Geologists use the deposits to measure the age of the surrounding rock and sediments while other scientists collect the minute skeletons to study the history of the Earth’s climate.

According to marine geologist Bilal Haq of the National Science Foundation at Arlington, Virginia, USA, the forams “preserve the original carbon and oxygen isotopes of that time, which are a proxy for past temperatures.”

The park is the brainchild of a world acclaimed scientist-academician Professor Zheng Souyi. She was born in Baguio, lived at Old Lucban, studied at Lucban Elementary School, and at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. She is a true blooded Baguioite who frequently visits our city especially when she brings delegations from the Institute of Oceanology, Acedemia Senica of Qingtao, Shangdong and Zhi Gong masters to do medical outreach missions at Chinatown, Manila. I told scientist Zheng that Baguio is truly proud of her contribution to the study of foraminiferas which enables geologists determine the earth’s history and climate. She studied Marine Biology and Oceanography at the Russia University of Marine Biology. She became a professor at the Institute of Oceanology and Chinese Academy of Sciences at Qingdao, Shangdong, China until she retired. Although she has retired, she still spends 16 hours at the laboratory studying the minutest details of foraminiferas and making palm size models of the microscopic marine organisms. She uses both living specimens and those specimens, which represent the various stages of the history of the Earth. According to Professor Zheng, she has six specimens from the Holocene epoch (beginning 10,000 years ago) which she found herself around Zhongshan. “The importance of the forams needs to be known all over the world,” says marine scientist Zheng. Thus, through her persuasive efforts, the Institute of Oceanology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the city government of Zhongshan which is also her ancestral hometown agreed to establish the sculpted park depicting the forams. Local artisans and stoneworkers created a replica of the forams under her strict supervision.

The Foraminiferal Sculpture Park was finished and opened for public viewing in December, 2009. The 2.5-acre park features 114 granite, marble and sandstone sculptures of foraminifera and millions of tourists have seen her work since then.

Her research studies have received various citations from the Smithsonian Institute and other National Science Foundations worldwide. Her works have been published in the Smithsonian Ecotourism and since then she has been working with various marine biologists from all over the world.

Going around the park to view each of the sculpted forams, I was surprised to see that one sculpted foraminifera had my name inscribed in it. Prof. Zheng told me that she wrote me sometime in 2006 about her study of one-celled organisms at the Institute of Oceanology at Qingdao, Shangdong and the possibility of assisting her in her project. I did not know that my small assistance to her research study helped in the completion of some palm-sized models of the minute one-celled organisms. In gratitude to the small assistance to her research work, she had one of her favorite specimens found at Zhongshan, sculpted in my name. Another favorite specimen was also sculpted in honor of the family of Wong Shui Loong for their assistance to her research.

After the visit to the Foraminiferal Sculpture Park at Sanxiang Township, Zhongshan, Wu Zhu Ke invited Prof. Zheng Shouyi and husband, Wong Shui Loong and wife Dolly, yours truly and Katherine to a dinner in honor of Prof. Zheng.

Mr. Wu Zhu Ke is the chair of China Zhi Gong Party and vice chair of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Zhongshan. Many officers of the political party were present and were very enthusiastic in receiving the group.

I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincerest thanks to the city government of Zhongshan, Guangdong, China for subsidizing the seven-day trip of the 19-man delegation of Philippine Zhongshan Federal Association. This is the first time after 62 years that a delegation from the Philippines made a visit to their hometown.

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The 2012 search for outstanding citizens of Baguio is ongoing. Forms are available at the City Administrator’s Office or see Ryan Dale Mangusan at the Mayor’s Office or call 442-3245 and ask for Katherine.