【正文】 ndscape architecture as a profession to address the following three major challenges and opportunities in the ing decades. First, a solution must be found to address the energy and environmental crises. Second, cultural identity must be regained, and third, the sense of spiritual connection to the earth must be enhanced. The significance of landscape architecture as a profession in dealing with these worldwide challenges is prehensive in its scope, examining the plexity of natural and biological processes, cultural and historical influences, and spiritual ponents. IFLA president Martha Fajardo says that Landscape architect is the profession of the future. The future of the profession is positive and it is in a unique position to deal with the landscape as an agent for positive change. This future will only be ours if we are prepared. To address this challenge, this paper will focus on several issues regarding the direction in which landscape architecture is headed. These questions include an analysis of the current era, the challenges and opportunities that landscape architecture currently face, a study of the mission of contemporary landscape architecture and its goal, and finally a look at how landscape architecture can take the lead role in addressing the major challenges of the time. It will also examine the strategies and adjustments landscape architecture should take to meet these challenges and pare the strategies that landscape architects can utilize to fulfill this mission. 1 The Land of Peach Blossoms and the Origin of Landscape Architecture as an Art of Survival In an ancient Chinese story about a land of peach blossoms, told by poet Tao Yuanming (365427AD). A fisherman traveling along a stream in a boat chances upon a place framed at both sides by blossoming peach trees. In the legend, the place, the source of the stream, was hidden behind a hill. The land had wellcultivated basins, paths, ditches, was surround by lush forestcovered hills, and was connected by a single narrow cave. In this isolated utopian landscape, a munity lived happily as a family, where the elderly were healthy and the young were lively. The fisherman was weled into the peoples39。s Yellow River Valley, during one of several thousand natural disasters, a village was pletely buried by a flood and subsequent landslide, killing all of its inhabitants. When a mother was being buried in the mud, she protected her baby child, raised her head, stretched her arms, and called the gods for help (Figure 02). The responding god, Da Yu, was considered a deity who was able to make friends with the floods, and who began to use rules and measures, and made wise use of the land to select a safe place for the people to build a city. Da Yu was China39。s leadership. It was this emperor39。s urbanfocused economy, along with the skills and the art of agricultural cultivation and stewardship. This process began with the gardens of classical scholars from thousands of years ago, and has now spread to civic art and landscape design. Landscape design, once the art of the emperors, has descended into the realm of the trivial. Thousands of landscape architects pete for a tiny piece of land in the city. Simultaneously, the major rivers run dry and polluted, the underground water table continues to drop, and in the north, sand storms are affecting the area39。 there exists the danger of losing ecological integrity, cultural identity and historical heritage, while there also exists the great opportunity to create a new relationship between the land and the people in the current era. Along with the processes of urbanization, the disappearance of the land of peach blossoms is obvious. The present era marks one of globalization and the spread of materialism. This has brought three major challenges and opportunities to landscape architecture in China. The First Challenge: Can We Be Sustainable? The first challenge is China39。s billion people will, within 20 years, live in cities(the present rate is 40 percent). Two thirds of the 662 cities lack sufficient water and not a single river in the urban and suburban areas runs unpolluted. Thousands of dams crisscross nearly all rivers in China. More than ever, the general Chinese population is exposed to disastrous natural forces, as demonstrated by the numerous floods and droughts each year. The northern regions of China are in crisis because of desertification, where each year 3436 square kilometers of land bee desert, a figure which is increasing each year. At present, the total area of desertification accounts for about 20 percent of the whole country, and each year about 5 billion tons of soil erodes into the ocean (Jiang and Liu, 2021。s wetlands have disappeared, and 40 percent of the surviving wetlands have been polluted (Chen, Lu and Yong, 2021). The underground water level drops continuously. In Beijing for example, the underground water overuse is 110 percent, and each year the underground water level drops by one meter (Figure 12a20b). There are economic costs to this environmental destruction. While the GDP growth rate in the past 20 years is impressive in most Chinese cities, the annual loss caused by the environmental and ecological degradation is now between 7 and 20 percent of GDP. This is equal to, or even higher than the annual GDP growth (Guo 2021). These are all byproducts of China39。s speedy process of urbanization. One can onl y wonder if this is sustainable. Can China survive the rapid deterioration of the environment? What will this mean to the profession of landscape architecture, and how can landscape architecture position itself to play a role to meet such unprecedented challenges? This big picture leads us to argue that landscape architecture should be reestablished as an art of survival, th