Located in northern China, Lingyuan is renowned for its abundant blooming flowers in June. Recently, the 5th Lingyuan Lily Festival, with the theme “Lilies Blooming for a Beautiful Life”, kicks off in Lingyuan, Liaoning.
Visitors to the Lingyuan Lily Festival are greeted by a fragrant garden brimming with lilies. These flowers are not only ornamental but also possess medicinal properties. According to traditional Chinese medicine, lilies can balance the yin and yang, nourish the lung, calm the nerves, and ease anxiety. As one takes a leisurely stroll among the blooms, the refreshing and relaxing atmosphere is palpable.
The Lily Festival, which had its first successful launch in Lingyuan, Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province in 2016, has become a specialty industry and a premier tourism attraction in the area. Moreover, it has played a crucial role as a platform and carrier for promoting opening-up, cooperation, and exchanges.
The main venue of this year’s Lily Festival is located at the newly-built China Lily Expo Park, which was completed in September 2022. The Expo Park covers an area of 1,500 mu (100 hectares), boasting a modern greenhouse with a building area of 18,000 square meters. Additionally, it features nearly 100 mu (approximately 6.67 hectares) of outdoor flower fields and eight themed gardens dedicated to flower exhibitions. Located inside the greenhouse, the indoor exhibition area is adorned with herbaceous borders and flower beds of lilies, as well as potted lilies, complemented by artistic decorations and popular photo spots. These features perfectly embody the theme of a beautiful life, attracting a large number of visitors to explore pleasures in the summer. More than 20 domestic and international floral companies are participating in the exhibition with the latest global varieties of lilies, roses, peonies, chrysanthemums, hydrangeas and other flowers, providing technical support for the development of the Lingyuan floral industry.
The lilies and tulips of Lingyuan serve not only as ornamental attractions but also as significant contributors to the local economy. Since the 1960s, Lingyuan has been cultivating and breeding gladioli. After more than 60 years of development, the region now boasts over 100 varieties of flowers in more than a dozen series, including lilies, tulips, gladioli, and chrysanthemums. There are over 50 floral cooperatives and more than 10,000 farmers engaged in lily production. Flower cultivation has become one of the preferred industries for local residents, bringing them considerable economic benefits. At present, Lingyuan boasts a flower planting area of 25,000 mu (approximately 1667 hectares), yielding an annual output of 270 million fresh-cut flowers, breeding 50 million bulbs of lilies and gladioli, thus generating a production value of over one billion yuan. It is the largest production base for bulbous fresh-cut flowers and breeding center for Asiatic lily and gladioli bulbs in northern China, enjoying the reputation of being the “Number One County of Lilies in China”.
