Some lucky folks who visited Botanical Gardens on 11 September were treated to an unexpected surprise. While viewing exotic plants and flowers, they came across the Mega superstar of Hollywood and Asia taking a stroll around the gardens: Jackie Chan.

Don’t need to rub your eyes; this piece of news will confirm what some lucky visitors just saw on that day. The tour around Botanic Gardens was part of a prestigious event whereby Jackie Chan was going to have a special orchid hybrid named in his honour. This event was the brainchild of National Park, in conjunction with the National Library and the movie event of the year: Jackie Chan’s The Myth. Accompanying him was the director and fellow actress of the Myth, Stanley Tong and Mallika Sherawat.

Indeed, it was like a fairy tale coming alive at the Botanical Garden for those who witness the trio’s surprise descent to the lush garden of Singapore. Before the orchid naming event at Burkill Hall, Jackie Chan took a detour and visited the nearby display of rare award winning orchids at Tan Hoon Siang Mist House. It’s quite a rare sight to see an action star taking his time in appreciating and taking a closer look at special orchids such as Moth Pollinated Orchids and Fragrant Orchids. Not even the slight drizzle could dampen this superstar’s viewing pleasure.

His viewing pleasure also brought forth viewing pleasure of those who are visiting nearby the Burkill Hall and Tan Hoon Siang Mist House area. After meeting Jackie Chan in person, A little girl with her face painted as a cat joyfully exclaimed to her parents how glad she was that she came to the Botanical Garden on that very day. It certainly bought joy to those who never thought they would be seeing Jackie Chan in person at the Botanical Gardens.

After the viewing of the gardens, it was back to Burkill Hall for the main orchid naming event. The orchid in the limelight that day was a cross breed between “Dendrobium Ruby Las” and “Dendrobium Sachiyo Kaifu”. It was chosen from over 2000 orchid hybrids as this particular one specially has certain similarities features that look like a Dragon, which is appropriate as Jackie Chan’s Chinese name contains the word Dragon in it.

And of course, the hybrid orchid was christened “Dendrobium Jackie Chan”.

Although he never expected that the orchid-naming event to be formal, Jackie Chan recognized the efforts made to cultivate this “dragon like” orchid hybrid. He expressed that he would like to return to Singapore more often to water his orchid and hope that it will continue to grow as strong as him. However, as he probably knows that it will be difficult to take time out from his busy schedule to nurture the orchid, he turns to the caretakers at National Park and asks them to take care of the orchid on his behalf.

Shortly after that Jackie Chan was presented with an orchid birth certificate and posed for a picture where he hugged his Orchid. And soon after that Jackie Chan, Stanley Tong and the Indian Beauty Mallika Sherawat made their departure from this little oasis of garden of the Singapore concrete jungle.

During your next visit to Botanical Gardens, look out for “Denrobium Jackie Chan” and see for yourself if you can find any dragon like features in it.