The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 1800 Lakeside Avenue, on the North Side of Richmond, Virginia. Garden have been voted the No. 4 public garden in North America by readers of USA Today! With year-round beauty on 50 acres, the Garden also offers great dining, shopping, exhibits and events. Explore more than dozen themed areas including a glass Conservatory, interactive Children’s Garden with accessible Tree House, Asian Valley, Wetland Garden teeming with wildlife and Rose Garden.

Admission:
Adults: $13
Seniors (55+): $11
Military (with ID): $10
Children (3-12): $8
Children (under 3): Free
Members: Free

Regular Hours:
Daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

credit: Mark F. Levisay

The Three Gorges Dam Project is the world’s largest hydropower complex project located in one of the three gorges of the Yangtze River: the Xilingxia Gorge in Hubei province, China. The dam’s name refers to the majestic limestone cliffs of the Qutang, Wu, and Xiling gorges, which stretch for about 200 kilometers from Fengjie. Construction of the controversial Three Gorges Dam began in 1994. Its first turbine was connected to the grid in 2003, with the final one was connected up in 2012. Made of concrete and steel, the dam is 2,335 m long and the top of the dam is 185 metres above sea level. The project used 27.2 million cubic metres of concrete , 463,000 tonnes of steel and moved about 102.6 million cubic metres of earth. A total of 1.3 million people had to be relocated from their homes.

credit: clgregor

The New York Botanical Garden’s annual Orchid Show never fails to disappoint, and this year’s show is no exception. The visual style is deliberate. “Orchidelirium” harks back to the era when orchid mania swept Victorian England with such intensity that it required a new word to describe it. The spectacular centerpiece of the show, above, is a “mountain” of volcanic rock and orchids built over a cleverly-hidden structure of steel and chicken wire.

credit: shri_ram_r