It is gardenia blooming season again. On May 30, the hillsides at the gardenia plantation in Chitang Village, Wugang were blanketed with a sea of gardenia flowers, forming a picturesque scene with blue skies, white clouds, green mountains, and clear waters. The beautiful scene attracted tourists from various places to admire the flower. "The gardenias are so beautiful and fragrant, I love them," said Yemeni tourist Abdulmalek Hasan.

On the same day, tourists from Yemen, Thailand, Pakistan, Morocco, and other countries, along with local villagers, participated in study tours and gardenia picking competitions, and tasted gardenia tea and gardenia cuisine, creating a cross-boundary integration of multiple industries including flower viewing, health and wellness, gastronomy, and cultural entertainment.

Gardenia is a traditional flower and medicinal plant in China, with large, beautiful blossoms, a long blooming period, and a strong fragrance. It is an economic crop that integrates medicinal, edible, ornamental, industrial, and ecological values. A Wugang local enterprise has been committed to the gardenia industry, using the flowers as a medium to organize gardenia cultural tourism events annually and to conduct agricultural product exhibitions, thereby driving rural tourism development. In recent years, the company has adopted a "cooperative + plantation + farmer" model to vigorously develop the gardenia as a Chinese medicinal herb. It has promoted the planting of over 5,000 mu (approximately 333 hectares) of yellow gardenia in Wugang, achieving integrated operations of planting, picking, processing, and sales, with an annual output value of ten million yuan.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunantoday