A 200-YEAR-OLD banyan tree, which was relocated for the construction of Metro Line 3 and the renovation of Shenhui Road, has started budding again.

The banyan tree, one of the landmarks in Longgang District, was originally located at the intersection of Shenhui Road and Longcheng Road Central. It was moved 100 meters to the eastern side of Longcheng Square on Dec. 31, 2007.

Several government departments held a number of meetings to discuss the banyan’s relocation. “We finally decided to move the banyan, because if we didn’t, the route for Metro Line 3 would have to be changed and the budget would be very big,” an unnamed official with the Longgang district relocation office said.

The move had been under preparation for a week. Some branches were lopped after botanists were consulted as the trunk of the banyan was so big that three people could not join hands around it. Workers wrapped the trunk in hessian and used three heavy cranes to move the tree to the square.

Residents in Longgang saw the tree as their spiritual sustenance, an area resident surnamed Luo said. People used to sing songs and burn incense sticks to pay respects to their ancestors under the tree during the Mid-Autumn Festival and Qingming Festival, Luo said.

Nobody knows the exact age of the tree, although an 80-year-old man said it should be about 200 years old. “It was already there when I was a child,” the unnamed man said. “But it was not as luxuriant as it is today.” (Wang Yuanyuan)