Ever since early April, it seems that my blog and Instagram feeds have been popping up with pictures of everything spring. As we’ve been hanging around tropical countries for the past several months, we haven’t really noticed a change in season. But for the rest of the world (okay, just the northern hemisphere), it appears that spring has truly arrived, bringing with it blue skies, pastels, and of course, newly blooming flowers.
I may be a tad late to the spring party but I finally have my own springy pictures!
One Saturday morning in Beijing, my aunt and uncle picked us up to go to a site in the outskirts of Beijing, over 80 km away from the city center. What started out as giddy enthusiasm quickly turned into hair-pulling frustration as we found ourselves slowly creeping along the highway with the thousands of other people also hoping to escape the city.
With the new sunny weather, local tourism is now in full swing in China and come the weekend, most city dwellers head for the peace of the countryside. If I ever thought Los Angeles traffic was bad, then it’s got nothing on Beijing.
After two hours of inching along in bumper-to-bumper traffic, we abandoned the original plan when my aunt put another option on the table: how about we visit the flower expo instead? It was closer and the traffic there was not as bad.
Now I’ve never thought of myself as a huge flowers girl. I never buy flowers for my house, and if someone were to give me a bouquet of fresh blooms, they would surely die a sad, lonely death. If asked ahead of time if I wanted to go to a flower expo, I would have said no. Flowers, while pretty, are also a little boring to stare at for hours, no?
But at this point, we were desperate to get somewhere and not waste this outing, so we eagerly agreed.
I should know by now to always trust my aunt and uncle. They have quite the reputation for being the adventure-seekers of the family. They know all the newest Beijing hot-spots and best local attractions. And sure enough, this wasn’t just any flower expo! The Tulip Festival was currently going on!
The International Flower Port is only a few years old and specializes in breeding and selling fresh flowers. It’s open year round for visitors to stroll around and enjoy the current flowers and exhibitions, and even has seasons for picking fruit.
But the most exciting times to visit are during the festivals: tulips every spring and chrysanthemums every autumn. (I read that there is also a rose festival and lantern festival, but I’m not sure what seasons those happen.)
The park is 1.5 square miles (or 4 square kms), which doesn’t sound all that big, but it felt humongous. It features a large lake, multiple flower fields, a bamboo forest, and much more. We probably only got to walk around 30% of it in an afternoon. The best way to explore the park is by renting a bicycle cart, but unfortunately, they were all rented out.
Wandering around the park, it was easy to forget that we were in China. This was such a huge departure from the loud, busy concrete jungle that is Beijing. Even on a weekend day, the park was not crowded at all (I’m sure the immense size of the place helps), which is very rare for Chinese sites.
And then, we turned a corner and saw… windmills! In just a few steps, we’ve been transported to Holland!
We didn’t go to the tulips field last year when we were in Amsterdam and I’ve always wondered if maybe we should have gone as it is considered the huge “must-see” in Holland. Never did I think that I would get the chance to experience it… halfway around the world, in China!
I didn’t initially think that I’d be too interested in huge flower fields, but I ended up being the most shutter-happy one of all in our group. I was the one crouching down on the ground in order to find that perfect angle. And the one constantly lagging behind as I stopped every few feet to photograph every single different colored tulip.
This part of the park is no-doubt the centerpiece. The flowers here are the biggest, freshest, and most vibrant. So of course, now cue a bunch of pictures with the windmills.
I think this park is worthy of a visit (especially during festival season) if you’re in Beijing for a longer amount of time and can spare a day or two. Beijing has so many famous historical attractions that local gems such as this gets passed up. I loved that this park wasn’t crowded and it provided such a peaceful (and pretty!) retreat from the bustling city.
I hope you enjoyed these pictures of tulips as much as I enjoyed visiting the park! I was surprised at just how much fun I had hanging out with flowers. I definitely wouldn’t mind doing something like this again. But just so we’re clear, for my birthday, I would still much rather prefer desserts to flowers. :P
Beijing International Flower Port Practical Information:
- Location: in the Shunyi district, about 60 km from Beijing’s city center
- How to get there: my uncle drove us, but here are directions I found: Take Bus No. 915 or No. 918 from the East Gate (东直门) and go to Nancai (南彩). Then change to Bus No. 41 to get to the Beijing International Flower Port.
- Hours: 9:00 am – 5:00 daily
- Price: tickets during the special festivals are 80RMB each (US$13), while general admission is 20RMB (US$3).
- The most popular Tulip Festival starts mid-April.
Have you been to the tulip fields or any other flower exhibition?
So gorgeous! It truly looks like the classic Amsterdam’s tulips. I went to a similar park a while ago and had the time of my life, these kind of places ask for countless of pretty pictures!
I know! I took SO MANY pictures!! Everytime we turned a corner, the scenery just got prettier and prettier!
That is awesome! I’m really starting to think that China has pretty much everything – you’d never have to travel anywhere else! (Isn’t there some mini-Venice too?)
Yep! The little cities around Shanghai are all Venice-like canal towns. I went to some a few years ago. China really is so diverse!
china does tend to be random and beautiful. I went to these crazy floral gardens in Chengdu with all these abandoned temples. Its an amazing country and I miss it SO much. Your pictures are lovely
Oooh that sounds really pretty with the abandoned temples. I can’t even imagine how sad you must be to be away from China after being there and being immersed in the culture for so long!
Oh my goodness gracious this is JUST like holland!! I’m so amazed. Your photos are seriously superb– I’m so impressed that there aren’t tons of people in them! ;)
Yeah! It’s really rare with a Chinese site has so little people. Local tourism is so huge in China and most of the time, all the sites are just a sea of people. So this was really nice and peaceful!
Very nice surprise indeed. Chiang Rai changes it’s parks into wonderful flower gardens during the cool season and it was a treat to see tulips and other “spring” flowers in the winter here. I hope this changes you about the flower thing, cause, girl, flowers do wonders for a dining room table or desk ;)
Hehe I have no patience for taking care of flowers, but I do have a better appreciation for admiring them now! I bet the parks in Chiang Rai are beautiful too!
You could take those pictures of the bridges and the gazebo out and insist you went back to Holland. Nobody would know!
I know, seriously! Looks just like Holland (at least what I imagine Holland looks like during tulip season)!
I may be guilty of being that person who is constantly banging on about spring things… I’ve even started banging on about other peoples spring things.
I love these photos! and this is definitely a place I would visit, even after seeing the real thing in The Netherlands, I’d totally be up for the Chinese remake ;)
I do find flowers to be quite boring after too long, but for a few hours, I don’t mind. As long as it’s everyone else’s hard work… I don’t care for flowers in my home or whatnot :)
Hehe you may be one of those people, but I’m not annoyed in the slightest!
So what do you think of this one vs. the Holland one? Looks pretty close? :)
You could easily be in Holland haha! Actually, you appear to have more tulips than when we went as we were a little early!
IT LOOKS STUNNING! I wish I could go see that. Too bad you can’t send me some of those flowers for my garden. I would love you have those in front of my house. That is a really nice surprise! Wish there was stuff around here that I we could randomly do like that. :)
Thanks for coming by Domenica! Where do you live in? I never see stuff like this either, so it was really fun to see it for a day! I love tulips too!
Hi Anna! I am from Canada, middle of the praries, the land is flat and there are a lot of sun flowers and wheat farms. But I am a city girl so I only really see the stuff while highway driving. :)
Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers!! I’ve never seen a field of them but I imagine that it’d be so beautiful!
What a beautiful, accidental find! Totally looks like Holland. I am seriously obsessed with flowers! I don’t often have them in the house, but I love visiting botanical gardens and anywhere where flowers are really, so this looks SO appealing to me!
You would love it then!! I really enjoyed visiting it even though I didn’t think I was that much of a flower lover!
Your pictures are stunning! What a gorgeous place. Those dark purple tulips are really interesting – so moody! There is a farm outside of Melbourne that has a similar tulip festival every year – I think you’ve inspired me to make the trip again this year! x
Ooh so would that be in October for you? I can’t wait to see your pictures when you go! x
I really liked those dark purple/almost black tulips too. I’ve never seen any like that.
Hello Dear, is it still there.. I really want to visit that place. Or if you know some other place where I can see tulips in Beijing. Thank you…
Hi Abdur, I’m so incredibly sorry for the late response! And I’m sorry to say that the tulips aren’t there anymore :(. I’m not sure where else to see tulips in Beijing. I’m sorry I don’t have better news or info!
Those are GORGEOUS! Sounds like such a fun afternoon exploring around the expo! And I agree… I much prefer chocolates to flowers… although some bright color is nice in the apartment every now and then! :)
Hehe yep, give me chocolate (or cake!) any day! I do agree though that flowers just brighten a space up so much and make you happier. I should really learn to appreciate them more!