ITINERARY  APRIL 15-30, 2004  

This study-tour was originally scheduled for April 2003.  It was postponed at the last minute on account of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).  Happily, the tour is set to go in 2004 and the price has not increased.  Request sign-up package. 

Paeonia 'Gu Ban Tong Chun': "Old Friends Sharing Spring Pleasure."

Paeonia 'Yan Long Zi': "Purple Haze at Twilight".

Fragrant Hills: Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  

Beijing Botanical Garden: The "Tree Peony Fairy" with her namesakes.

Mutianyu: This section of the Great Wall was first built in the 6th century. 

Beijing: Peonies are in bloom all over the city. This is Jishan Park, where the Ming Dynasty ended. 

Paeonia 'Zhao Zi': "Zhao Family's Purple," a classic peony of the Qing Dynasty. 

Summer Palace: The Garden of Harmonious Interest is considered the height of the gardener's art. 

Summer Palace: Peonies outside the Big Theatre.

Dowager Empress Cixi.

Forbidden City: Peonies in Emperor Qianlong's private garden. 

Paeonia  'Cao Zhou Hong': "Caozhou Red." 

Heze: Cultivated species include Paeonia rockii. 

Heze: Zhaolou Peony Garden, a major nursery and research center.

Jiyuan County: Paeonia jishanensis.

Luoyang: Peony Park. 

Paeonia 'Yao Huang': Yao's Yellow, the King of Peonies and pride of Luoyang. 

Paeonia ''Wei Zi': Wei's Purple, the Queen of Peonies.   

Longmen Caves: Buddhist treasures near Luoyang. 

Xian: The neolithic Banpo Village. 

Xian: The Terracotta Army of Qin (click to enlarge the picture). 

Xian entertainment: Musicians and dancers of the Tang.

Zhangjiajie: Limestone pillars in the clouds (click to enlarge the picture). 

Zhangjiajie:Davidia involucrata in bloom. 

Zhangjiajie: Manglietia  in bloom. 

Hangzhou: Huanglong (Yellow Dragon) Waterfall. 

Hangzhou: Octagonal pavilion of Pinghu Tower on West Lake. 

Shanghai: Pattra-leaf door in the Yuan Garden. 

Shanghai Botanical Garden: The penjing collection. 

Shanghai Botanical Garden: The peony collection.  

Connoisseur shopping: The Shanghai Museum (shown here lit up at night)  has stunning displays of Chinese art and excellent book and gift shops.

Tonight we have our first group get-together. We're in China, it's spring, we're surrounded by peonies! Cheers! 

Then we drive north into the hills, to walk the Great Wall at Mutianyu. This is one of the best preserved, and steepest, sections of the wall. Don't worry, we'll glide up and down in a cablecar. 

Dinner tonight is a traditional Beijing Duck feast at the Quanjude Restaurant, where this succulent dish was perfected centuries ago. Our dinner guests are some of the capital's most interesting plantspeople. 

We break for lunch and to visit the Wanhai Bookstore, the mother lode of books about Chinese plants. Every book you've lusted after is here, and then some. 

Late afternoon finds us at the Summer Palace, the former imperial retreat with its private lake. We see the imperial peony gardens and amble through the rest of the grounds, soaking up atmosphere. 

Then, as the sun sets, we enter an imperial dining hall for a formal banquet with more Chinese plant-friends. Every delicacy on tonight's menu is from a recipe once enjoyed by Cixi, the last Dowager Empress. 

Then we head south by train through Hebe and Shandong provinces to the Heze Peony Festival, the biggest and most important celebration of China's national flower. Soon we enter the floodplain of the Yellow River. This is the agricultural heartland of early Chinese civilization, and still the heartland of peony cultivation. Heze (ancient Caozhou) is known as "the land of peonies." It has been the main center of peony cultivation in China since the Qing Dynasty began, in the mid-17th century.

Tonight we stay at the Huadu Hotel in Heze.

Late in the day we travel by coach ~ a very comfortable bus ~ to Kaifeng, our base for a peony-hunting day trip into the countryside. Tonight we stay in the Dong Yuan Hotel in Kaifeng.  

Having found, photographed and worshipped P. jishanensis,  we head west to Luoyang, again on the Yellow River, where another peony festival awaits us. 

Luoyang, "the city of peonies," China's capital during 9 dynasties, has been a center of peony production since the Sui Dynasty (6th century, just before the Tang). For much of that time, it was the main center. Now it is second to Heze.

We end the day with a visit to the Luoyang Peony Festival. In Wangcheng Park, the legendary King of Peonies, 'Yao Huang' (Yao's Yellow) and the Queen of Peonies, 'Wei Zi' (Wei's Purple) are blooming in vast formal beds. The  range of cultivars grown in Luoyang is similar to that in Heze, but each display is different and we will again have the chance to meet local peony experts. 

Tonight we stay at the Peony Plaza Hotel. 

This afternoon we board a train and head west again, to Xian (ancient Changan), capital of China under 12 dynasties culminating in the Tang; now it is the capital of Shaanxi Province.

Tonight and tomorrow night we stay at the Xian Garden Hotel. 

Our guides may not mention the importance of peonies in ancient times, because it is so obvious to them. But you may assume that every ancient Chinese person they describe, from Emperor to maidservant and soldier, regarded peonies as special: used their roots in medicine, looked forward to their bloom, sang songs about them.  

We will visit the Banpo Neolithic Village, founded more than 6,000 years ago. 

We will see the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huangdi, China's first emperor, who took power in 221 BC. Qin, pronounced "Chin," lends his name to our word China. He was considered mere legend until 1974, when archeologists opened his tomb and discovered him, guarded by an army of life-size clay soldiers. The tomb is now a UN World Heritage Site.

We will also see many relics of the Tang Dynasty, including the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (source of the Chinese folk tale "Journey to the West"), and the Huaqing Hot Spring, where the intrepid among us may bathe. 

Our day of history concludes with a dinner and entertainment in imperial Tang style. 

Then we fly to Zhangjiajie City in Hunan Province for three relaxed days of blissful, ad-lib excursions in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park at the height of spring bloom. This is a reserve so magnificent that it is a UN World Heritage Site; fortunately for us, it is off the beaten path. 

Our friend Dr. Huang Hongquan, director of  Zhangjiajie's Research Institute of Applied Botany, leads us on easy hikes through the magical landscape of eroded limestone pinnacles, pocket lakes, waterfalls and underground caverns. We see countless rare flowering trees, shrubs and wildflowers. Jim Waddick is eager to explore further along the Golden Whip Stream, where two years ago he spotted what may be a new species of Lycoris.  

Highlights of our stay will probably include Lake Baofeng, Yellow Dragon Cave and Tianzi Mountain. But we will go where whim dictates, resorting to aerial trams, buses and even sedan chairs as required.  We will also sample Hunan's famous hot-pepper cuisine. 

Tonight, tomorrow and Saturday, our base is the charming Pipaxi Hotel. 

Tonight we stay in the Wanghou Hotel. 

Then we visit West Lake itself, viewing more of the Famous Scenes ~ gardens, ornamental islets and natural features ~ along its shoreline in our own private boat. We move at our own pace. If there's time we may stop at a floating teahouse. 

We will also visit the National Bamboo Research Center as the guests of Mr. Ding Xingcui, a specialist in all things bamboo. He will introduce us to some uncommon and beautiful species and tell us how to cultivate them.

We dine with some of the plant friends we made today, then board a late train for Shanghai, China's most modern and sophisticated metropolis.

Our hotel is the elegant Shanghai Mansion, right on the waterfront.

This afternoon we visit the Shanghai Botanical Garden as guests of its Assistant Director, our  friend Dr. Hu Yonghong. This garden has more than 7,000 peonies to delight us. It also has a knockout collection of penjing in the Shanghai style. 

This evening we hold our farewell banquet in a private, penthouse dining room atop our hotel. As we raise our glasses to China, and to each other, the city lies glittering before us in the darkness. After dinner, we stroll along the Bund, elated, among swirling crowds of Shanghainese who are also enjoying the spring night.