Since May, the flourishing flowers of Jincheng Lanzhou have been blooming one after another, with peonies in Yuzhong and rose in Yongdeng competing in beauty, and the Lingang flower sea in Lanzhou New Area carefully preparing to welcome visitors. Relying on specialty flower resources, our city has gathered crowds through festivals, shaped scenery through sea of flowers, and expanded business formats through experiences, promoting the extension of flower viewing across the entire industry chain and the transformation of traditional sightseeing into immersive experiences. This continuously activates new momentum for the flower economy, empowers deep integration of agriculture and tourism through flowers, and injects fragrant vitality into rural revitalization and high-quality regional cultural tourism development.
Unique and famous flowers compete in brilliance, and the integration of culture and tourism shines across the entire region
In May, Jincheng is in full bloom, peonies bloom gracefully in Yuzhong, and the subtle fragrance of roses in Yongdeng drifts. Across Lanzhou, flowers serve as a medium, culture shapes tourism, and tourism promotes agriculture, transforming vibrant flower seas into cultural tourism resources and upgrading them into wealthy industries. This allows visitors to immerse themselves in the fragrant scenery and helps the flower economy flourish along the way, injecting continuous fragrant momentum into rural revitalization.
On May 16, peonies bloomed one after another in the peony garden at Tianxiang Mountain in Heping Town, Yuzhong County, attracting tourists to admire the flowers and check in.
Mr. Chen Dezhong, an 85-year-old third-generation inheritor of the Lanzhou Heping Purple-spotted Peony, is inspecting the peonies in the garden. He has devoted over 50 years of effort to collecting peony germplasm resources and hybrid breeding. Under his dedicated leadership, Heping Town has now established three distinctive peony bases: Tianxiangshan, Fanjiaying, and Heping Peony Garden, attracting visitors from all over the country to admire them.
As the base with the largest number of peony varieties in Lanzhou, Tianxiangshan Peony Garden has more than 1,200 peony varieties. Chen Dezhong's daughter, Chen Fuyin, picked fresh flowers in the orchard. She said that this year, the park introduced purple-spotted peony fresh-cut flowers for the first time, and after their launch, the market response was very positive, with products sold to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and other regions. Relying on a 400-acre breeding base for purple-spotted peonies and over 50 years of accumulated peony germplasm resource banks, the company can continuously launch new fresh cut flowers with purple-spotted flowers. Compared to ordinary Zhongyuan peonies, local purple-spotted peonies stand out with thick and long stems, full flower shapes, rich colors, and rich fragrance. They bloom at staggered times, giving them significant market competitiveness.
Amidst the blooming flowers, visitors sit around the flowers, sipping tea, admiring the blossoms, and relaxing in comfort. Ms. Wang, a tourist from Baiyin, admitted that she came here on a friend's recommendation, and the continuous blooming peonies of various colors were breathtakingly beautiful, dazzling the eyes and a feast for the eyes. Before leaving, bring a bouquet of fresh cut peony flowers and bring their fragrance home.
Leveraging its unique peony resources, Tianxiangshan will drive nearby peony growers to develop fresh cut flowers, specialty peony catering, sightseeing tourism, and related industries, promoting the peony industry from purely ornamental to integrated development, achieving a transformation from "a single flower" to the entire peony industry chain.
Looking across western Jincheng, in May in Kushui Town, Yongdeng County, tens of thousands of mu of roses bloom in competition. Roses cover the hills and fields, their branches full of charm and charm. Visitors can enjoy the fun of flower picking and visit rose deep-processing enterprises, observe the production techniques of specialty products such as rose essential oil, rose syrup, and flower cakes up close, and deeply experience Yongdeng's uniquely charming "Rose Good Life."
During this year's May Day holiday, Yongdeng County innovatively created a new integrated development model of "solar terms + culture and tourism," carefully launching the "Flower Sea Intangible Heritage · Bitter Water Romantic Flower Viewing Tour" boutique tourism route, deeply integrating the culture of the twenty-four solar terms with rural tourism. At the same time, it integrates all-region cultural and tourism resources, plans to launch 20 boutique rural tourism routes, innovatively cultivating diverse new business models such as "tourism + agriculture" and "tourism + study tours," promoting the iterative upgrade of rural landscape and cultural tourism development from "standout in single points" to "outstanding across the entire region."
In late May, Yongdeng County held a Kushui Rose cultural tourism industry exchange event, marking the simultaneous launch of the Yongdeng Rose Tourism Season series. The series of activities will continue until the end of June, focusing on the deep integration of the rose specialty industry with the cultural tourism sector, building an industry docking platform for government-enterprise linkage, resource sharing, and win-win cooperation. It will promote a comprehensive transformation of Yongdeng's cultural tourism development from single resource displays to industrialized cooperation and market-oriented operations, continuously polishing the "China's Bitter Water Rose Hometown" distinctive cultural tourism brand, and empowering comprehensive rural revitalization through improved quality and efficiency in the cultural tourism industry.
Cultivating flower and sea views with dedication, creating a more beautiful ecology and helping farmers prosper
Currently, the Lingang Flower Sea in Lanzhou New Area is lush and full of vitality. After careful care, various flowers are growing in succession, about to enter a romantic blooming season. As the core node of the new district's flower and cultural tourism route, Lingang Flower Sea relies on 600 mu of contiguous flower sea resources. Through scientific planning, business model upgrades, and agricultural-tourism linkage, it focuses on solving seasonal tourism challenges. Using flowers as a medium, it creates a suburban leisure check-in destination that can be enjoyed year-round and offers diverse business formats, injecting new vitality into the high-quality development of the regional cultural tourism industry.
Entering the Lingang flower sea, the well-arranged flower fields are clearly divided, and various ornamental flowers such as verbena, cosmos, and Dabindai are thriving. The scenic area is planned with the overall concept of "one core, multiple plots, four seasons layered," carefully selecting and introducing flower varieties suited to the arid climate of Northwest China. In addition to main flowers like verbena, ground chrysanthemum, and zinnia, it also plants specialty varieties like roses and four-season roses, creating a richly layered flower sea landscape.
"We have leveraged the staggered blooming of flowers to create a regular flower viewing season lasting seven months. Every April to May, early spring flowers such as peach, apricot blossom, elm plum, and lilac bloom first, painting a vibrant scene of spring; From June to October, verbena, cosmos, and four-season roses enter their peak blooming periods, continuing the romantic purple of summer and the vibrant floral scenes of autumn. "He Jilu, the on-site manager of Lanzhou New Area Oasis Ecological Garden Construction Co., Ltd.," explained.
At the same time, the scenic area uses staggered planting and scientific flower varieties to stagger peak blooming periods for various flowers, ensuring that flagship flowers bloom concentrated every month from April to October, ensuring flowers to enjoy year-round and beautiful scenery to enjoy throughout the year. The park is divided into distinctive zones such as purple verbena flower seas and daisy flower seas, paired with popular photo spots, allowing visitors to experience the charm of the flower sea with changing scenery as they move around.
A single flower attracts a hundred industries; while beautifying the ecological environment, the Lingang Flower Sea has also effectively boosted the income and prosperity of surrounding farmers. The scenic area prioritizes local villagers to participate in flower planting and daily maintenance, employing more than 40 local farmers year-round, and up to 60 temporary workers during peak tourist seasons, allowing villagers to find jobs close to home. This truly transforms ecological beauty into income dividends, forging a path of integrated agriculture-tourism with ecological beauty and prosperity for the people.
Speaking about future development, He Jilu stated that the scenic area will continue to deepen its cultivation of the flower cultural tourism industry. On one hand, it will constantly introduce high-quality drought- and cold-resistant ornamental flowers, enrich the year-round flower scenery, and further extend the flower-viewing period; On the other hand, it is deeply expanding the diversified "Flowers+" business formats, continuously improving leisure facilities to enrich the visitor experience. At the same time, it strengthens coordinated development with surrounding villages, integrates cultural and tourism resources, and creates an integrated flower cultural tourism zone. The goal is to make the Lingang Flower Sea a well-known flower tourism check-in destination in Lanzhou, using ecological cultural tourism to support rural revitalization and coordinated regional economic development in the new area.
Currently, flower sea management is progressing in an orderly manner. Staff carry out daily weeding, watering, and other meticulous care. The much-anticipated Verbena flower sea will reach its peak blooming period in mid to late June, when the contiguous purple flower fields will form a dreamlike purple ocean, waiting for visitors from all directions to come and enjoy the scenery.
Huayang Economy Charm Strong: Promising Prospects for Developing Huayang Industry
As summer arrives, flower consumption continues to heat up, with more and more people moving from simply buying and viewing flowers to engaging in immersive experiences such as floral crafts, study tours, and rural interactions. The flower economy, centered on experience, has quietly emerged, becoming a new highlight in the integrated development of cultural tourism consumption and specialty industries, injecting fresh vitality into the city's economy.
At the Lanzhou New Area Flower Trading Center, specialty flower study tours are becoming an important carrier of the experiential economy. Relying on large-scale modern agricultural facilities, the layered and categorized study tour system is maturing, allowing young people to gain knowledge and practice through the fragrance of flowers. For primary and secondary school students, science courses such as flower cognition, smart agriculture observation, succulent DIY, and small potted plant making are offered; For university students, the focus is on facility agriculture and other professional practices, promoting deep integration of theoretical knowledge and practical skills. At the same time, for women, they offer themed experiences such as rural picking, intangible heritage crafts, and parent-child flower arranging, forming a complete process of "visit + learning + hands-on + experience," making study tours more engaging and practical, and becoming an important base for labor education and aesthetic education.
Floral art experiences continue to gain popularity, becoming a new trend in flower consumption. From flower trading centers to core urban business districts, interactive programs such as flower arranging experiences, flower salons, and fresh cut flower care classes are highly popular. During holidays, parent-child flower arrangements and women-themed floral salons are often sold out, and citizens upgrade from "buying flowers to take home" to "immersive floral art," greatly increasing consumer loyalty and brand favorability.
"During last year's National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, we launched themed bouquet and floral experience activities, serving over 6,500 customers in three days. Experiential consumption drove significant growth in performance. This year, we will continue to enrich our activities to attract more citizens to come and experience them." Liu Yuting, head of the Lanzhou New Area Agricultural Investment Flower Trading Center, said.
As an important venue for flower culture and tourism, the contiguous flower sea deeply integrates viewing experiences with leisure formats, creating an open ecological space that is "enjoyable, playable, and tourable." Lingang Flower Sea Area has set up family-child amusement parks, horse racing tracks, go-karts, sightseeing trains, and other leisure projects in the core area, creating a comprehensive cultural tourism scene that combines flower viewing, family fun, and leisure vacations. Supporting popular check-in spots and scenic trails, visitors can stroll through flower fields for photos and check in, or participate in pastoral leisure, achieving a one-stop experience of "sightseeing + check-in + entertainment," making it a popular suburban leisure destination in Lanzhou.
From study tours in greenhouses to floral salons in commercial districts, from check-in seas of flowers in the countryside to family-style handmade experiences, the flower economy is rapidly transforming from "product supply" to "experience supply." The rich and diverse experiential scenarios not only satisfy people's aspirations for a better life but also promote the deep integration of the flower industry with culture, tourism, education, and leisure, making the flower economy richer, more vibrant, and more attractive.
In the future, as experience formats continue to diversify and service quality improves, the experience economy using flowers as a medium will further unleash its potential, injecting stronger momentum into the high-quality development of specialty industries and upgrading cultural tourism consumption, bringing floral fragrance and beautiful experiences into more people's lives. (Reporters Wang Wenjia and Ma Yanling, text/photos)