In 2000, Li Xiaoqi, a graduate from China Agricultural University, returned to his home town of Heze City in east Chinas Shandong Province and devoted himself to the peony market.
After years of hard work, Li broadened his familys peony field, which originally had less than 10 mu (about 0.67 hectares), to 2,200 mu, and developed a modern-day peony industrial park including a seedling and fresh-cut flower export processing plant, a cold storage, a laboratory and office facilities.While developing his own business, Li also led hundreds of regional farmers to take part in the peony market, and helped them master peony production and growing techniques, contributing considerably to the regional hardship relief efforts and effectively promoting the advancement of the local peony industry.The flourishing peony industry has actually made it possible for Heze -- the peony capital of China -- to cultivate 4 significant development sectors concentrating on seedling breeding, flower growing, deep processing and cultural tourism.The 2025 World Peony Conference and the 34th Heze International Peony Cultural Tourism Festival, jointly described as the 2025 Heze Peony Festival, formally began on Tuesday.
Featuring 4 sub-forums and 29 activities, the celebration will last one month.Blooming flower economyAs the worlds biggest peony planting and scientific research and processing base, recently, Heze has continued to tap the benefits of peonies in locations such as variety growing, commercial growth, and cultural and tourist integration.The city has currently cultivated 9 color systems, 10 flower shapes and 1,308 varieties, with its planting location and number of ranges ranking first globally.Besides the peony, Heze has actually established the growing of other flowers such as the herbaceous peony, rose and gerbera jamesonii.
In 2015, the citys sales of fresh-cut herbaceous peony flowers reached 120 million pieces, which were exported to more than 20 countries and areas in the world.In regards to industrial advancement, Heze has constructed a total industrial chain from planting and processing to tourist and cultural creativity.Having more than 120 peony production and processing enterprises and 20 scientific research study organizations, the city has established over 260 peony-derived products, ranging from seed oil, cosmetics and cultural items.
Last year, the overall output value of the peony market reached 13 billion yuan (about $1.8 billion).
As Hezes the majority of gorgeous business card, peony has become a powerful engine for the high-quality advancement of cultural tourist, said Yu Jiannan, head of the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.Promoting cultural exchangesOn Wednesday and Thursday, the Heze Peony International Communication Forum was held.
A series of activities, such as the digital analysis of paintings which converts static paintings into dynamic images, and digital images of peonies produced by ChatGPT, have actually injected brand-new incentive into the international dissemination of peony culture through technological empowerment.In recent years, Heze has deeply checked out the worths of peonies, and actively created a friendly cultural sign for international communication.In addition to the holding of the forum, the city has actually established overseas sub-venues of the Peony Festival in countries such as the Netherlands, Japan and South Korea.It has actually also established peony culture communication stations in Brazil, Malaysia, Romania and other countries, and held award occasions related to the peony to introduce the charm of peonies to more than 50 Belt and Road partner countries, providing an appealing window into the popular perception of peony culture.The festival has constructed an essential platform for boosting friendship, strengthening cooperation and cultural exchanges, stated Yu.