On April 28, the 2022 Hezhou Peony Cultural Carnival kicked off. The picture shows the scene of the event. Photo by Ai Qinglong
On April 28, the 2022 Hezhou Peony Cultural Carnival kicked off. The picture shows the scene of the event. Photo by Ai Qinglong
Linxia, Gansu, China, April 29 (Ai Qinglong) On the evening of the 28th, laser lanterns illuminated the neighborhood, drone formations showed various peony shapes, and "peony fairies" fell from the sky... The 2022 Hezhou Peony Cultural Carnival, which has been active for more than half a year, was launched, which is also the beginning of the first industry of the local 10 billion level.
Located in the northwest of Gansu Linxia, ancient called Hezhou, since ancient times there is a history of cultivating peonies, Hezhou peony varieties, a variety of flowers, including "Buddha head green", "green butterfly", "cinnabar red", "Hezhou powder" and other precious varieties, especially the national third-level protected plants, China's unique endangered species purple peony is unique. The Qing Dynasty poet Wu Zhen once had a good story that "where there are peonies, victory is definitely Hezhou". Anecdotally, Linxia is compared to Luoyang City, which is "Peony Jia Tianxia", and it also has the reputation of "Little Luoyang".
The picture shows the peony flower on the egg carving. Photo by Ai Qinglong
It is worth mentioning that most of the counties and cities under the jurisdiction of Linxia were once key counties for poverty alleviation and development in the Liupanshan concentrated contiguous area of special poverty, and there was even a saying that "the whole country looks at Gansu for poverty alleviation, and Gansu has looked at Linxia for poverty alleviation". With the completion of poverty alleviation and the implementation of rural revitalization, how to build a unique cultural tourism industry has become the focus of attention of all sectors of society in the process of rural revitalization. Creating "Peony IP" is the choice of Linxia.
The reporter recently visited Linxia City, where the capital of Linxia Prefecture is located, and found that peony culture has penetrated into life, whether it is flowers, poetry, or painting, brick carving, woodcuts, paintings, or peony oil, peony soda, but also developed peony tourism routes, peony elements can be seen everywhere in all fields.
The picture shows the peony soda developed in Linxia. Photo by Ai Qinglong
"Peony root bark into medicine to make Danpi, purple peony is still a good woody oil crop, peony flower buds, petals, leaf buds can be made into tea." Han Fujun, associate researcher and science and technology commissioner of the Institute of Flower Research of Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as the "peony king" of Linxia, the purple-spotted peony seedlings cultivated by his team have long been "far married" to Hebei, Fujian, Shandong and other places.
Han Fujun said that the company cooperated with the Lanzhou Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Fujian Institute of Subtropical Botany, and Xiamen Xiamen Lin Company to develop a series of products for the deep processing of purple peony, extend the industrial chain of purple peony, and jointly develop the spring flowering technology of oil peony, "cultivating peony seedlings, each cycle for 5 years, the average income per mu exceeds 100,000 yuan." Han Fujun said.
In fact, Linxia also faces many problems in the process of creating "peony IP", which chooses to "borrow a ship to go to sea", such as inviting experts from think tanks around the world to solve problems in a targeted manner, or developing related products with the help of superior resources from other provinces, such as peony soda, peony mooncake, etc.
The picture shows the peony flowers on the brick carving. Photo by Ai Qinglong
"It is expected to produce about 60 million cut flowers per year, with an annual total output value of about 180 million yuan, and the average output value per mu can reach 600,000 yuan." At the construction site of baiyi yinong international flower port project, the person in charge of the project, Ma Lin, said that the project is based on the industrial belt industry, trying to transform the rose flower production technology into peonies, hoping to achieve "standardized" output of peonies.
The reporter combed linxia's cultural tourism projects based on "peony", in 7 years, from the Hezhou Peony Cultural Festival to the Hezhou Peony Culture Month to the Hezhou Peony Cultural Carnival, with the upgrading of the name of the festival, it also gradually rose from the county-level city-level activities to the prefecture-level and state-level activities, and the counties huddled together to create "Peony IP".
"Invite tourists to Linxia to enjoy peonies, view the beautiful scenery, tour the Eight Fang Houses, listen to the flowers of Hezhou, and taste the food of Hezhou." Mao Hongbo, vice governor of Linxia Prefecture, once revealed that the 2022 Hezhou Peony Cultural Carnival includes 114 series of activities for 15 brands such as cultural forums, Chinese flower conferences, and brand sports events. (End)