Springtime in china isn't just about being pretty anymore, oh no no, it's big business, and today we'll dig into the high stakes economics behind the petals.
Are these fleeting flowers a sustainable gold mine or just a beautiful bubble waiting to pop?
We're live from our studios in beijing.
This is roundtable, i'm steve.
Thank you so much for sharing your time with us today and for the program.
I'm with yushan and feifei first up.
As spring arrives, China transforms into a vast canvas of color really beautiful, from cherry blossoms to peach flowers and more.
But it's not just about scenery.
Across the country.
Flower viewing has evolved into a powerful economic engine, blending travel and culture and lifestyle into what many are now calling the blossom or flower economy.
So what's behind this booming blossom economy, and can the magic of these fleeting petals turn into a lasting model for bigger business?
It is, Feifei and Yuxin, good afternoon.
We talked about the allergy side of the season yesterday on the show, but today we're going to focus on the beauty and the business, if you will.
It is the season for flowers.
We're seeing, i think, right now in beijing some of the peach blossoms start to blossom, and also there are apricot blossoms.
There are also peach blossoms and magnolia, and also in the southern part we have rip seed flowers and more and more and more, and that is when the chinese people want to go to flower viewing trips.
But now it's no longer just about seeing flowers and appreciating them.
A lot of consumers are trying to enhance their experiences with travel, with culture, with leisure.
So I have a set of data from a homestay operator called Tujia that shows searches for flower viewing jumped 70 during the first week of this month compared to last month, and they signaled a sharp spike in interest as the season begins.
Right, the season, i guess, begins around the middle of march and it goes.
It goes as long as the flowers last.
Yes, it depends on the temperature.
Maybe, for example, in recent days, a little bit warmer, so some of the flowers were starting to bloom and then in some areas maybe suburban area they have a relatively colder weather and then they will be.
The blossoms there will be a little bit later.
A little bit later, yeah.
So if you're a hardcore flower enthusiast, you can follow the flowers from the south to the north as they start to appear.
We're pretty lucky.
I mean, outside of our studios here where we are in beijing, we have, i don't know.
See you named all the flowers, feifei.
I identify them by color Like ooh, a white one.
Ooh, a yellow one.
Ooh, a pink one.
I don't know what they are.
But just outside our studios we have some of these beautiful peach or cherry blossom trees that, even though we're in the northern part of the country, they've bloomed already.
Yeah.
I think Yushan and I we just saw from the window of our office that in the distant mountain you can see that shades of pink and white flowers in the mountains.
And speaking of all the different flowers, of course different places have their different quote unquote specialties when it comes to the type and species.
For example, I think Wuhan would be one famous for cherry blossoms.
And it is also trying to take advantage of this name tag that it has as the cherry blossom economy.
And it's also the city wants to blend their cherry blossom season with other activities, for example sports and culture and tourism.
And so, for example, I've seen that in the beginning of March, in the middle of March actually, the city has a lot of sports events.
They have a 2026 Wuhan marathon, which will be held this weekend, on March the 22nd, that over 30000 runners will participate.
And after that.
There are also other things like women's basketball World Cup qualifiers, Asian football Confederation Women Champions League and there are a number of sports events.
And so Wuhan also launched a sports consumption week from the 16th of March to 22nd, taking advantage of you know you can go to the sports events and also appreciating the flowers.
Yeah, this is big business for the city of Wuhan.
The economic impact of the flower plus sports economy is about a billion and a half yuan.
That's about 218 million dollars.
And the cultural and tourism revenue that comes from this type of promotion is is really successful as well.
Last year's numbers are proof of that.
In the first quarter of last year it surpassed 100 billion yuan, about 145 billion, for the very first time.
The numbers are reflected everywhere.
The subway passenger flow Reached over five and a half million trips.
That was a new high for that particular year.
Hotel occupancy rates, they increased by 40%.
The rooms are in high demand when the cherry blossoms rise. are in full view and those rooms will sell out months in advance because people know it's coming and they prepare for it too i mean this is just a season and the view that is just very very easy to be liked right when you're seeing no matter it's um alongside the pedestrian street or on the little hill or mountain when you see that huge amount of pink and white blossom you you can just be ah yeah exactly yeah that's all you need to say that's exactly it um but it's not just wuhan wuyuan is another great example too that's in a different province yes wuyuan in east china's jiangxi province also attracted over 5.3 million visitors with its uh Flowers generating more than 5 billion yuan or 728 million US dollars in tourism revenue.
That place is famous for the rapeseed flowers, right?
And if I'm correct, Fei Fei, please correct me.
Those are the taller yellow ones.
Yeah, I think they can also be called, well, they're similar to cannoli on some level.
They can be made into oil.
And in the southern part, not only Jiangxi, like in provinces of Hubei, which also is where Wuhan is located, and also Sichuan, they have like vast fields of these flowers.
And that's why they're famous for.
Even in Shanghai, there's an island that is famous for huge land of this rapeseed.
Oh yeah, and the see for me, this particular flower.
If you just look at one, I feel like yeah whatever yeah, they're always in a field together yeah, and it looks absolutely gorgeous when you see it like that.
All right, so let's talk about the flower economy.
How did this come to be?
Well, it has a long history actually, but I'm not sure if it exists in other cultures, but as a long history sounds, Because we're naming a lot of these things nowadays blah blah, blah.
Economy blah, blah.
It's kind of a new idea or concept lately.
You're saying it has a long history.
Oh, I found a story this morning and I had to confirm.
I put it in the group chat and I said, is this true?
Is this factual?
And Fei Fei helped me out.
She said, yeah, this is actually true.
We're going to share this story in just a sec, but it's so cool.
And it's proof that the flower economy existed hundreds of years ago in China.
And so, first of all, in the ancient Chinese culture, there's always been an element of appreciating seasonal flowers.
I think, starting from as early as the Tang Dynasty or maybe even earlier before that, we have festivals designated for flowers, so called, or in English is Flower Birthday Festival.
It's a festival celebrating the birthdays of different flowers.
And then from Tang Dynasty that people start to arrange events surrounding that and they also launched products, for example, flower-themed flowers food, flower themed decoration accessories or costume tombs, or you know.
There are also different gatherings, like friends gather around and appreciating a different type of flowers, for example, peach flowers.
There are also poems about that, describing how beautiful and comparing, you know, beautiful people to different types of flowers.
And when it comes to the Song Dynasty, that's when these kind of flower birthday festival really take off.
So this is around the year 960 to 1270 something?
1200,000 years ago.
1200?
No, not that many years ago.
Yeah, so that's when that people really start to taking this festival really seriously.
I think they even have like public holidays for this.
It's just, you know, people stop working to just appreciating the flowers.
And it's also when that Steve mentioned that story happened, actually.
Yeah, you want to tell this story?
Yeah, it's very funny.
This is where the flower economy, I assume, officially began.
This guy was in his family.
They were business geniuses.
So according to a book written by Ouyang Xiu, he's a very famous Chinese official and also a poet.
And he wrote a book called Luoyang Peony Record.
He basically recorded different types of peony flowers during that time.
And he mentioned that one of the varieties of peony flowers got really popular in the city of Luoyang at that time, which is now in the central China.
It's called Wei family's flower.
And they have a big garden for this particular type of peony flowers.
And then later on they start to charge fees, admission fees for visitors who want to go inside the garden and appreciating the flowers.
And they charge about a dozen coins per person.
And in one day I think they can collect 10 plus strings of these coins, which is meant more than 10000 coins per day.
Yeah, one string equaled 1,000 coins.
So this Wei family turned the flower viewing into a business.
And I read as well that they dug a pond around the flower field today, on the outside of it, so that people couldn't get in for free.
Yeah, that's what they charge the money for.
Yeah, exactly.
So they funneled everyone into the middle, into the front entrance, if you will.
And they were smart enough to know which flowers were popular and unique at the time.
So they grew those flowers for their own garden.
And that's how they turned it into a really impressive business.
That was the beginning of the flower economy.
Kind of similar to what we see today.
But what's it like now, the flower viewing economy?
It is a really popular thing for people to do.
Yeah, I would say some of the people are also, I think, tracing back to a lot of these traditions back then.
And then also nowadays, the flower viewing economy begins with the flowers, but is not limited to them.
Because currently, travelers' demands for these spring outings extend far beyond just sightseeing photography.
They seek richer and more diverse leisure experiences.
For example, they're combining flower sightseeing with living in a very countryside style homestay so that they can enjoy the barbecue, enjoy the courtyard as, as well as enjoying the beautiful flowers.
So doing homestays instead of doing hotels, then you mean?
Yeah, because a lot of these popular spots for flowers for example, the yellow fields, the rapeseed flower fields we talked about, they sometimes are located really far from city areas.
So there are really limited hotel options out there.
And also, I think it loses the authenticity when it comes to you staying in a hotel, when you're going to a countryside appreciating the local flowers well, compared to, you know, staying at a local homestay, versus where you know it's run by local residents, it's basically their own home in the past.
So is it like a bb type thing?
Mostly yeah, i think so, and many of these are actually just simple poor countryside uh guest houses offering a basic accommodation and also breakfast at prices maybe lower than these expensive luxury hotels.
But since it's like peak season right um, and so prices have gone up, so rooms that usually cost under 100 yen uh are now around 200 to 300 yuan per night.
I mean, that's kind of To be expected, I think, because that's exactly the time.
It's a very limited amount of time that they can charge that price.
It's only a few weeks, right?
And that's why you see these bookings surge for cherry blossom destinations or peach blossom destinations, or rapeseed destinations.
Pick your flower and you can find a place to go, yes?
Yes.
Yeah.
For example, in lesser-known cities where they're known for their different types of flowers, such as Meishan in Sichuan province or Dehong in Yunnan province or Anshun in Guizhou province, their homestay bookings doubled year on year at this season.
So you can see, people are not only going to the popular cities like Wuhan, we mentioned, or Wuxi or Wuyuan in Jiangxi province we talked about.
They're also like.
I think a lot of people will take this opportunity to travel to nearby on a short trip outside of their own home.
Well, there's data that says that People are taking longer trips as well.
Internet platforms as of March 14th showed that over 80 of outbound flower viewing products and over 50 of domestic flower viewing products have been booked.
So people, what they're doing, they're booking their different types of vacation, right?
So some people will plan a long distance trip.
And usually those types of trips will be planned much further in advance, right?
You want to make sure that you get your rooms booked and be very organized that way.
The shorter trips will often be booked much closer to the date of departure, maybe a little bit more spontaneous of a decision there.
But travelers tend to arrange their trips based on their own preferences.
And that's why the bookings have been so difficult to do for long and short distance travel, because you just have to.
I mean, I don't think it makes a difference whether it's a short distance away or a long distance away.
You really have to plan in advance for this.
Yeah, and they're really popular.
And another thing is that I think when we're talking about long distance and short distance, it's getting a little bit vague through the public transportation right now.
Because when you're on that high speed rail maybe it takes you around like three to four hours, but actually you're going from the west to the east.
Yeah, for the Wei family back in the year 950.
People would travel months, perhaps.
Yeah, but now it's like five hours away tops.
Yeah, exactly.
All right.
So how, I mean, the government's getting involved as well.
Local governments, they're... uh taking advantage maybe not taking advantage but just trying to design things as best as they possibly can to attract as many viewers and visitors as they possibly can to these regions yeah many local governments they are also holding many campaigns and activities to attract also maybe combining the flower economy into some of the consumption activities and one of the thing that is really interesting I saw that in Suzhou, they've launched a flower goddess parade that brings back traditional flower customs, complete with ancient style park tours and also stamp collecting games to make the visit feel more like a cultural journey than just a walk or a sightseeing.
Because we've mentioned some of the historical stories of this flower sightseeing.
I think they are also, I think linking these things together.
And also I saw that um uh In Sichuan they've increased the number of trains on that kind of specific line.
They call them train to spring line, which takes passengers through scenic spots like Chongzhou and Daiyi specifically to see the flowers.
And meanwhile Tianjin also launched free custom bus lines that connect all the major cities flower viewing parts to solve the last mile travel problem for tourists.
I have another place, it's called Ningzhi in Xizang, that is known for its peach blossoms, actually, that it has a lot of wild peach trees in its wild.
I think they have more than three million wild trees out there, with many have like hundreds of years of history, and this year, as usual, they launched a peach blossom festival and it's all about immersive experiences, like a very similar like stamp collecting game that you mentioned that's launched in Suzhou.
They also have like a camping activity that, Because in Ningzhi you're not only getting the scenes of peach blossom trees, you can also appreciate snow mountains.
There are also glaciers that you can visit.
Because it's around 3,800 meters of altitude?
Well, Ningzhi, some part of it is like more than 2,000 meters altitude.
So you can have like, different views based on the altitude that you visited.
Must be beautiful, because that's up in the mountains yeah, so they have this um peach blossom under the star, music parties where you can appreciating snow-capped mountains surrounded by blossoms and also under the starry star, and also you can have performances brought by local artists of the Tibetan ethnic groups and all the other ethnic groups in Xizang.
So it's a very that's why I call it immersive experiences and also targeting young audiences out there.
And also when it comes to Ningzhi, I think one part is very important.
It's about how to get there, really.
We have like, because it's like in the, not really in the middle, but it's on a plateau.
So now travelers can travel along the national highway called 318, which is very famous for self-driving travelers, where you can have RV campsites.
You can have different hotels, guest houses and BBs.
And or, if you're not really in for driving yourself, you can also travel on high-speed rail from Lhasa to Linz, which began operations in the year 2021.
Have you guys been to one of these anywhere in the country, one of these flower festivals before?
Actually, my hometown, Wuxi, has a park.
It's called Yuantouzhu and it is also well-known in that area of it's a huge whole area of cherry blossom.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
A lot of people around my city like Shanghai Changzhou, Suzhou will visit my hometown to get a peak of that huge amount of cherry that is really pink.
Have you been at home during the influx of visitors?
I'm just wondering.
I know you got that right.
Yeah, i.
I unfortunately didn't have a chance to actually see that cherry blossom because every time that time it is just fully packed by tourists.
I've never well I've visited some parks in Beijing that's known for different types of flowers.
For example, in a park called Yuantan, it's known for cherry blossoms.
And around this year, I believe every year, they launch like different activities, like cherry blossom themed products, like ice creams, hats.
Um fans, you know the fans that use, and so, but also, it's also always very, very packed, especially over the weekends, that a lot of people go to there and try to get a photo, for example.
Um.
So when you try to visit these parks and try to take a photo of the beautiful flowers yourself, you sometimes need to prepare a stool, for instance.
So you can stand on it, get above the crowd.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess that's one of the challenges then Yushan, is that no matter what, because it's such a beautiful time of year, because people have been inside for the last few months of winter, if you're coming from the northern parts of the country, everybody wants to go.
Everybody wants to experience it.
That's one of the difficulties, I guess, is the crowds and the bookings and things like that.
Definitely.
And also another thing is that because people think it has a limited period of time to see these flowers, that's why they're doing that at the same time together, which will make these scenic spots very, very packed.
And that's why some of these scenic spots are also finding out solutions to Like Prolon their time period of showing people different types of flowers.
In Yancheng, in Jiangsu, their flower sea scenic spot doesn't just stop.
After the tulips fade, they've planned a relay of blooms.
Following tulips with lilies. to keep the park vibrant for six months instead of just three.
But I think for other parts, when it comes to some of the supportive services, when it comes to restrooms.
For instance, when you visited a very crowded tourist spot, going to the restroom can be a headache sometimes.
So they've been calling for expanding capacities. to these services, transport is one.
That's why in Ningzhi, as I mentioned, they've launched different transport options.
You can fly there, you can take high-speed rail, you can drive there, there are also buses there.
But when it comes to other public services, I think it also needs like.
For example, maybe we can tap into technology when it comes to monitoring the crowds in advance in preparation for that.
And also when it comes to cleaning and maintenance and other supporting facilities.
For example, if there are families traveling outside, what about the facilities for babies and small children?
That's also been part of the discussions all the time.
I saw a challenge too about copycat towns or copycat cities, but I couldn't quite understand what that was about.
Because what it was saying was that some regions will blindly copy popular flower types without considering local conditions.
And they say that that can lead to some generic landscapes with no strong identity.
So does that mean that You know?
You mentioned in the beginning that some regions are well known for particular types of flowers.
Wuhan was the first example we talked about.
But some regions aren't, I guess.
So that means that they're just trying to grow those different types of flowers in their own region, even though they're not really known for that.
Kind of, yes.
Because...
Some of these flowers, they grow there for a reason.
The climate, the humidity and everything are suitable for them to grow.
And then some of these areas.
Maybe they're looking at the whole area, the whole situation of these spring economy.
And wow, people like cherry blossom.
Wow, people like peach blossom.
Then we grow that.
But actually, they're not very suitable for growing them.
And then one thing is that of course they maybe can grow out some of the flowers, but The thing is they can last really long and that is not a just, sustainable solution for them.
Speaking of sustainable too, that's.
Another difficulty is that these flowers are not on our schedule.
They are on their own schedule, and that schedule is a very limited one.
So can they turn this, pardon me, into something longer?
I also saw some of the examples that are actually – trying to solve this kind of problem.
In Henan's Tongbai Mountains, they've implemented a tea and cherry symbiosis plan.
They plant tea trees under the wild cherry blossoms, which helps the soil and means they can sell flower viewing in the early spring and then attract people to do tea picking right afterwards.
Sorry, go ahead first.
That reminds me of a spot in Yunnan province.
It's called Jingmai Mountain.
They have a very similar strategy.
They're known for their tea picking activities and cultures.
But the thing is they also have their peak seasons, which can be very, very crowded, and they're only small villages.
They have very limited capacity when it comes to absorbing this amount of visitors.
So what they did was also implanted a lot of cherry blossom trees, cherry blossom trees.
And then in this time of the year some of the visitors can go to that mountain, also appreciating the flowers as one, and also experience their tea culture there.
So they're sort of diluting the crowds based on that.
I'm glad you use that word because that's what I wanted to argue or just at least wonder about.
If you do dilute the experience.
If this flower season is limited to a few weeks and everybody knows this is the time that we need to go do this and millions of people travel all around the country to experience it.
If they thought or if they knew oh, we don't need to go now, we can go next month or we can go the month after that, you might dilute the experience to the point that it's not really special anymore.
That's true.
So I wonder if that would have a negative impact on the number of travelers.
Because when you feel that anxiety is not the right word, but that we have to do it now or we're going to miss it feeling, then you book it and you go and you do it.
But if you think yeah okay well no, maybe not this month, maybe a couple of months later, we can go, it's not as special and you might not feel the urgency to book and go and experience it and spend.
I think that makes sense totally and people who may be like influenced by these kind of what we call formal um mindset yeah, well will be affected and then they will book the tickets.
And people like me, Like I know that there is a place that is really really well known and beautiful for cherry blossom in my hometown, but I never had a chance to do.
That is because okay, there's always next year.
Okay, next year, next year.
So, yeah, I think both of the situation will be there.
But I think the dilution is overall, by and large, a positive strategy.
Because when we're talking about big crowds, just to appreciating hundreds of flower trees, if you have too many people, your experience is not that good anyway.
It's true.
So, if you are diluting some of the crowds, maybe to next month and yes, maybe for the next month, travel experiences is not as special as the concentrated two week flower peak season, but with less people in that spot, you still get that experience.
Instead of going to, I think Beijing, has a place called Fragrant Mountain, Fragrant Hill, which is known for its red leaves in the fall.
And a very famous saying that people share is that if you go to that hill in the autumn, you will see more people than leaves.
Wow.
Really?
Well, that's funny that you mentioned that Fragrant Hills Park, because Beijing.
And let's end here, because that's exactly where we are.
The Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks.
They are recommending six selected routes for flower viewers in this city.
And it combines spring blossoms and ancient architecture and boating fun.
But I'm curious about this, because the places that they've recommended and this is, by the way these recommendations are made to help visitors avoid the crowds.
Okay.
One on the list is the Plum Blossom Exploration Route at Summer Palace.
I've been to Summer Palace.
It's extremely crowded.
Next on the list was the Peach Blossom and Willow Route at, do you pronounce it Bay High Park?
Yes.
That's where the beautiful lake is, correct?
Yeah, and also very crowded.
I've been there.
I couldn't move.
And third was the Mountain Wildflower Route at Fragrant Hills Park.
So those are three of the recommended routes for people to go to avoid the popular tourist spots here in Beijing.
But I would have another recommendation actually.
For peach blossoms.
There is a mountain in the western part of Beijing is called Western.
They're literally called West Mountain, Xishan.
They have beautiful, beautiful peach blossoms on the mountains.
And it's also not as crowded as Beihai Park, for example.
So it's also not very far from the city center.
So I think that one can also be one of the options.
If you think the Summer Palace, the Beihai Park, the Fragment Hill Parks will also be very crowded.
Try to go during a weekday in the morning around 4 a.m.
That's probably...
Enjoying the night flowers.
Yes, exactly.
Night flower economy.
I don't know.
Maybe we can make something there.
And just quickly Yushan.
If people are headed in the Shanghai direction, they've got some stuff going on too.
Oh, yeah.
Some activities and campaigns are also held there.
2026 Shanghai International Flower Show at...
Miracle Garden, that's what they call the place.
They are having the International Flower Show and hosting a series of floral exhibitions inspired by Timeless Story, The Little Prince, and also Floral Wonderland 2096 is also having activities there.
Another exhibition features peonies as its main highlight is called Impression of Peonies, also happening right now.
So also in some A lot of places, just like Beijing, like parks and exhibition halls, they're having different styles of, I think, spring economy activities.
Because maybe here in Beijing, we go to the mountains and parks and hills to get the sightseeing.
But in some areas, like in Shanghai and the eastern part of China, they get these flowers and little trees in these pots.
And that is also a very big part of the gardening of Chinese people, traditional Chinese art yeah, like in the city where Yusheng is from actually the city of Suzhou and in the surrounding area.
They're known for their designing of different gardens yeah, and they have maybe one flower tree in the middle of the the garden, and it offers you a very different experiences comparing to see thousands of them in the mountains, so you can have different choices, Lots of choices all around the country.
Tis the season.
Get out there and enjoy some beautiful flowers.
