THE ancient art of bonsai originated in China, not Japan as believed by many Western countries.Su Yiji, executive vice president of Bonsai Club International, said Monday he had seen a bonsai fossil dating back 10,000 years in Shanghai, which indicated China’s long history of bonsai.“I also saw bonsai on a painting dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), featuring a woman carrying a bonsai tree,” he said.Bonsai, the art of growing miniature trees, spread to Japan from China at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and during the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It later was introduced to Europe and America from Japan, he said.Many people did not know the history of bonsai at that time and the English word “bonsai” was taken from the Japanese, he said.Su was in Chencun Village in Shunde, Guangdong Province, for a ceremony marking the city’s success in being appointed to host the 2006 World Bonsai Exhibition.The village defeated 13 international cities last May for the right to stage the exhibition in 2006.About 1,467 ha of cultivated land in the village, or about half of the total, is devoted to horticulture, making it China’s biggest producer and trading center of potted plants. Annual sales of plants from the village total one billion yuan (US$1.21 million).(Xinhua)