Million Sunflower Garden 百万葵园 – Guangzhou, China
Sunflower is among beautiful flowers ever exist on earth with a life span of 50 days. The fresh feed of sunflower is a good remedy for acne sufferers. If you are a sunflower lover, you might find Million Sunflower Garden in Guangzhou the most stunning place to enjoy the beauty of sunflowers. In summer 2009, my friends and I took quite a long journey to the Million Sunflower Garden. Not many tourists know this ecological garden since it is less famous compared to other tourist spots. However, it is regarded as one of the most interesting places in Guangzhou as spotted in the Guangzhou travel map. So, visiting the garden will give you a totally different experience from other common tourist visitors.
The Million Sunflower garden is situated in the Panyu area, which needs two-hour trip from the central Guangzhou. Take MTR until you reach the Jinzhou station. From that point, continue by taking a cab or a special bus that takes visitors to the park. On weekends and holidays, you could take a shuttle bus that usually runs from Guangzhou Zoo to the site, which operates at 9 am – 5 pm. The park is open everyday from 9 am to 5 pm with the admission fee of 68 Yuan for adults.
The Million sunflower garden arouses curiosity to those who hear it. What does million of sunflowers mean? Yes, indeed, the garden has abundant sunflowers and sparkles irresistible beauty. The garden is filled with over one million sunflowers that blossom all year around. Covering an area of 260,000 square meters, it houses over one million ornamental sunflowers imported form Japan. It then becomes the largest garden with the most sunflowers in Guangdong province, which is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Record for having the most sunflowers grown in one area. There was also a plan to import around 100,000 tulips from the Netherland for an exhibition.
Since the garden is a rare landmark in Guangzhou, it is nominated as the prestigious tourist spot in the Guinness Book of World Record. The idea to build the garden was originally inspired by a paint of the famous painter from Holland, Van Gough, who one century ago painted a very classic sunflower, which is not simply a flower but a reflection of passion. The garden might be the only ecological garden in Guangzhou which uses sunflowers as its main theme and its opening has marked a new genre of international garden concept in China that uses a particular flower as its major theme.
Various Flowers
The garden has a collection of various sunflowers, including the most common sunflower with a green core and bright yellow petals, the red sunflower, super sunflower, and most famous of all is the one named after the Holland famous painter, the “Van Gogh sunflower”. In adding variety to the species in the garden, the latest method called gene engineering was applied. Seeds of certain species were also imported from Japan and Europe and planted with a very good care.
Inside the garden, there is a long lane with sunflowers on each side of the road. However, at that time, most sunflowers were not in the blooming period. They looked pale and fainted. I believe during the blooming period, over one million sunflowers are ready to welcome you with big bright smiles. :)