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Burnham Park is a large green wooded park in Baguio City and it features an artificial boating lake in the center.
The park is located right in the middle of Baguio City, and is named after Daniel H. Burnham, the American architect and town planner who designed the grid for Baguio City (he modelled it on the grid of Washington DC in the United States).
It has landscaped grounds with flower beds in many places. It also has an orchidarium, a rose garden, a terrace restaurant, a children's playground, bicycle lanes, and areas for basketball and other sports.
There are boats to hire on the lake, and tricycles may be rented for the children.
Burnham Park is a great place to wander and watch the people of Baguio at play. However, one should be careful wandering around alone in this park at night as there have been reports of theft and attacks on tourists there after nightfall.
Burnham Park in the 1960s
Back in the 1960s Burnham Park was in its golden age. The man-made lake in the center had water lilies growing around near the banks. There were fish swimming around the lake and you could walk down a staircase into the lake and see the fish swimming around. There were boats for hire but probably just half a dozen. The boats at that time were small boats with oars that would acccommodate about 2-4 people. (In contrast, there are dozens of boats now. They come in all shapes e.g. swan shapes. Vendors of foods, drinks, etc. ply the lake in their own boats.
In the 1960s ordinary vehicles were banned from the Park. But you can hire small motorized cars that would seat just two people and drive on a special ring road around the edge of the lake. On one side of the Park there was a skating rink that was greatly used and loved by locals and visitors (unfortunately, in later years this skating rink fell into disrepair).
Interview with a Local Baguio Resident on Burham Park in 2014
"I like the upgrade of the playground.
I also like the extra lights that have been positioned around the lake. This leads to a feeling of greater safety, so that I no longer feeled scared when I go jogging around Burnham Park in the early morning hours.
The Park is now closed at night and a fence has been built right around the perimeter of the Park to secure the area. This actually leads to a protection of the park's clean and green nature."
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Author: David Paul Wagner
(David Paul Wagner on Google+)
