The 34th Peony Culture Festival Opens in Luoyang, China with Glamour and Fragrance

LUOYANG, China, April 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In Chinese culture, the peony characterizes prosperity and elegance. To celebrate its blooming, the 34th Peony Culture Festival of Luoyang, China, jointly held by the Ministry of Culture, P.R. China and the Henan Provincial Government, solemnly opened at the Dingding Gate Square on Sunday, April 10th, 2016, at 8:00 pm local time. The Dingding Gate is the landmark of Luoyang, a city in central China that had been the nation's capital for 13 dynasties.

With a history of over 1500 years of peony cultivation, Luoyang is known to be the hometown of Chinese peony. At present, Luoyang has built up three peony cultivation belts in the urban, suburban and southern mountains area, respectively. The peony in Luoyang has 9 kinds of colors, 10 flower patterns and more than 1200 types covering 180,000 mu (approx. 46.33 square miles) of planting areas. As a famous ancient poem goes, "Luoyang peony is the only true national beauty; its blooming amazes the whole capital." When peonies bloom in lunar March, the annual culture festival takes place and attracts millions of visitors from across the country and abroad. Now for the 34th time, the Luoyang Peony Culture Festival has evolved into one of the most internationally recognized culture festivals in China, an important window for opening up and a core brand of the city's cultural tourism.

The theme of the 34th Luoyang Peony Culture Festival is "Glamour and Fragrance, Blossom in the World." It implemented five development concepts of "Innovation," "Coordination," "green development," "opening up," and "sharing," and was committed to the principles of boosting construction and promoting management through conference, benefiting people, improving as a whole, and positively integrated itself deeper into the "One Belt, One Road" national strategy. Aimed at the internationalization of brand, commercialization of event, market-orientation of operation, and prolonging the industry chains, the festival had 11 major events and 27 specified events, including the opening ceremony. These events covered flower appreciation, cultural activities, economic and trade exhibitions and so on.

This year's opening ceremony, organized by Luoyang Tourism Development Group Co., Ltd., is the first in recent years that took place outdoors. The great live performance named "Blossoming in China, Crossing Silk Road" showed up in Dingding Gate Square in excessive splendor. The ceremony was sublime and brimming with historical atmosphere. It contained four chapters: the charm and song of peony, the legend and cultural light of Silk Road, the prosperity and welcoming guests of capital, the flowering in China and blossoming in the world. During the course of approximately 60 minutes, Dingding Gate was turned into a huge stage background. With the large building projection and shifting light shows, over 500 performers from home and abroad presented step by step the feature elements: peony flowering, travel to the West in the Han dynasty, exotic customs, prosperity under emperor Wu of Tang, modern Luoyang. All things together brought a high international quality program, "Blossoming in China, Crossing Silk Road", to the viewers in a perfect way. Again, the world put their eyes on Luoyang, the peony capital.

As it is peony blooming season now, Luoyang welcomes all of our friends from around the world to come together in this ancient capital, appreciating the grandeur and depth of Chinese culture, feeling the natural wonders of mountains and rivers, immersing in the glamour and fragrance of Luoyang peony, the king of the flower kingdom.

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