A mother and child play at the Bougainvillea speetabilis park in Zhangzhou, Fujian province.[Photo by Cai Wenyuan/For China Daily]
Heralding the Chinese Lunar New Year that begins on Feb 5, Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian province, has become a sea of flowers, attracting many local residents and tourists from around the country and the rest of the world.
Huahai Park was a once a wasteland, but now flowers are blooming everywhere, said a female park visitor, surnamed Chen.
"We organized a class reunion party in the park earlier this year and the photos that were taken are really beautiful due to the flowers in the background," said the 68-year-old.
"The smiles of the people in the photos were more brilliant than the flowers," Chen told China Daily.
Chen is a retired teacher from Fuzhou's Gulou No 2 Central Primary School.
Chen said she frequently visits the park together with her neighbors and friends to take a walk and enjoy the flowers.
"Every time, I can see many other park visitors having photos taken and doing exercise," she added.
Huahai Park, which integrates leisure, fitness, sightseeing and ecology, has become an ideal place for local residents and tourists to enjoy the flowers across all four seasons.
Visitors enjoy the view at a daffodil planting base in Zhangzhou, Fujian province.[Photo by Cai Wenyuan/For China Daily]
In addition to the blooming cole flowers in spring, the park plants sunflowers and lotus in the summer and grows spider-flower and chrysanthemum in the fall.
Huahai Park is just one of many Fuzhou destinations that are attracting a large number of daily visitors because of the different kinds of beautiful blooming flowers.
Niugangshan Park, formerly a trash mountain, has now become a hot spot for photography among locals and tourists after the park planted a large area of pink muhly grass at the end of 2017. Located in the city's Jin'an district, Niugangshan Park covers an area of 51.7 hectares and quickly became popular among visiting shutterbugs and social media enthusiasts when the large sea of pink flowers was found by local photographers and published online during last year's National Day holiday.
The muhly grass usually begins to bloom in September or October and lasts for more than three months.
According to Zhang Wenyuan, an official with Fujian Provincial Department of Forestry, both Fuzhou city government and Fujian province years ago made it a priority to develop such floral displays, with an aim to create green spaces and beautify the eastern metropolis and the entire province.
The sea of bamboo forests in Changting, Fujian province. The county provides a model for environmental protection.[Photo by Qiu Jiarui/For China Daily]
Official statistics released by Zhang's department showed that the province's area of floral cultivation had reached 85,406 hectares in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 6.7 percent - ranking 7th on the Chinese mainland and accounting for 6.15 percent of the country's total.
In 2017, the total value of Fujian's flower industry reached 64.25 billion yuan ($9.5 billion) and its flower export volume hit $120 million, up 14.9 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively, when compared with the figures recorded in 2016. Fujian's flower exports are second only to Yunnan province.
Fujian's potted plants, however, reached a value of $90.75 million in 2017, representing nearly 71 percent of the country's total and coming first on the mainland for the eighth straight year.
In Zhangzhou, bougainvillea has once become the major attraction to visitors during the 10th Cross-Straits Modern Agricultural Fair, which was held in the city in November.
Zhangzhou, which has a history of more than 100 years of planting bougainvillea, contributes more than 80 percent of Fujian's bougainvillea output each year, and has an annual production value of more than 1.5 billion yuan.
