Lijiang: Located in Lijiang in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, the Lijiang Modern Flower Industrial Park epitomizes China’s efforts to advance rural revitalization.
Empowered by an intelligent production system, all the greenhouses in the park use soilless cultivation technology, with the coverage rate of integrated water and fertilizer irrigation facilities reaching more than 85 percent.
Relying on the nearby Lijiang Airport, products such as fresh-cut roses and calla lilies can be delivered by air to cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou within 36 hours, and sold to countries such as Japan, Vietnam and Russia, creating jobs for more than 300 people in the surrounding rural areas.
Visiting the park on Wednesday afternoon, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with villagers and technicians, inquiring about flower varieties, market sales and their incomes.
The average monthly income of villagers is over 4,000 yuan (about $557.46) and it can exceed 7,000 yuan during peak seasons, the villagers said.
“Your endeavor is thriving and aligns with the development path of modern agriculture. May your lives be as beautiful as flowers,” Xi said with delight.
Developing distinctive industries has been Xi’s focus of attention during his domestic inspections in recent years. “The key to rural revitalization is industrial revitalization,” he once said.
Yunnan’s unique geographical and climatic conditions have earned the province the reputation of the “plant kingdom,” giving rise to the development of “flower economy.”
For many years, Yunnan’s output of fresh-cut flowers has ranked top in the country.
In 2024, the province’s flower planting area reached 1.95 million mu (about 130,000 hectares), including 350,000 mu dedicated to fresh-cut flowers. A total of 20.6 billion fresh-cut flowers were produced, ranking first globally.
The flower industry in Yunnan directly employs 380,000 people in planting, sorting and packaging, logistics and e-commerce, with over 1 million more employed indirectly. Decades of efforts by local people have led to the establishment of a full-fledged industrial chain, including Asia’s first and the world’s second-largest flower auction center. –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
