China – Flower Blossoms & Peony Festival Tour
April 8th to April 22nd, 2008
 

April 15: Luoyang
We spent most of the day visiting the Luoyang Peony Festival. The Peony of Luoyang is the most beautiful under heaven. The Peony, the emblem flower of Luoyang, is lauded as “Queen of flowers with ethereal colour and celestial fragrance”. Since the Tang Dynasty no Chinese city has been able to rival Luoyang in growing peonies boasting nearly 10 million peony trees with more than 700 species - all thanks to improvements in technology of peony cultivation. The yaohuang (Yao’s yellow peony) and weizi (Wei’s purple peony) are the “King” & “Queen” of all peonies. It has a history of over 1,000 years in the cultivation of peony trees. Their colours range from red, pink, purple, lavender and white to green, yellow, maroon and even black. In China, the peony symbolizes wealth and nobleness due to its large flowers.

The first Luoyang Peony Festival took place in April 1983 and since then it has become a major annual event featuring flowers, lanterns, exhibitions of traditional Chinese calligraphy, painting and photography. http://www.peony.biz/
Peonies and Plum blossoms are the traditional floral symbols of China. In 1903, the Qing Dynasty declared the Peony as the national flower of China. As you can see by the pictures, there was no shortage of peonies to photograph as there was also a floral display going on as well.