Luoyang Peony Festival and Luoyang Peony Gardens

Peony is the city flower of Luoyang. Luoyang Peony Festival (full name: The Peony Culture Festival of Luoyang China) is firstly held in 1983. Since then, it is held every year from April to early May. Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival has been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage and in 2010, it was upgraded to a national cultural event.

As an ancient Chinese poem praises: “Only the peony is really a national beauty with its bloom shocking the capital”, every year of this time, thousands of tourists will flood into this ancient capital to appreciate the beauty of peony. Apart from that, other activities such as artistic performance and peony-themed exhibition will be held. You may also encounter beautiful ladies dressing like Peony Fairy touring around the peony garden. There are mainly 3 blooming periods of the peonies in Luoyang, which are around April 10, April 15 and April 20. If you happen to be Luoyang in April, you can not miss the charming peonies.

Where to See Luoyang Peony - Recommended Luoyang Peony Gardens

For such a grand peony feast, it is like the whole Luoyang City is decorated with all kinds of peonies. You can see them in the parks, gardens and attractions. Here we have selected some featured places for you to have a look at the graceful peonies. You may choose one to visit according to your itinerary and the full-blossom period of peony flowers in those gardens.

✔ 3 Days Luoyang Peony Culture Festival Tour

Address: in Luoyang downtown, No. 312 Zhongzhou Middle Road, Jianxi District (河南省洛阳市涧西区中州中路312号)
Opening Hours: 6:00-21:00
Ticket during Luoyang Peony Festival: CNY 30
Full-blossom Period: Middle April

Wangcheng Park (Wangcheng means imperial city) gets its name because it was built on the site of the imperial city of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 BC-256 BC). Covering an area of 720,000 ㎡, it is the first site park in China and the largest comprehensive park in Henan Province.

On ordinary days, it is a leisure park for the locals to take a walk, but during Luoyang Peony Festival, it becomes a sea of peonies and has always been the main venue of peony festival to hold celebrative activities and appreciate peonies. The peony viewing area is about 50000 square meters. There are more than 100000 peonies in 840 varieties in the garden. You can appreciate peonies in all colors such as black, pink, red, purple, white, blue, and green.

Address: Luoyang Bridge South to Mudan Bridge South, Luolong District, Luoyang City (河南省洛阳市洛龙区洛阳桥南-牡丹桥南)
Opening Hours: 07:00-19:00
Ticket during Luoyang Peony Festival: CNY 50 (April 9 - April 25); CNY 40 (April 1 - April 8, April 26 - May 5)
Full-blossom Period: April 9 - April 25

China National Flower Garden is located on the ancient ruins of Sui and Tang Dynasties (AD 581-907), stretching 2500 meters from Luoyang Bridge in the east to Mudan Bridge in the west. It is the largest specified peony garden in China at present.

Integrating the Sui and Tang history into peony culture and the garden landscape, China National Flower Garden enjoys the reputation of "the best garden of Chinese national flower". It is divided into six scenic spots from west to east. About 500000 peonies in more than 1000 varieties are planted here, covering the 9 main colors of peony flowers.

Address: Wangcheng Avenue, Luolong District, Luoyang City (河南省洛阳市洛龙区王城大道)
Opening Hours: 7:00 - 19:00
Ticket during Luoyang Peony Festival: CNY 30 on weekends, CNY 10 on weekdays
Full-blossom Period: Middle April

Sui and Tang Dynasties Town Botanical Garden is built in December, 2005, covering an area of about 1,900,000 ㎡. As the name implies, there are in total 17 specified gardens to display different plants such as peony, rose, bamboo, fragrans, lilac, and plum.

The peony garden covers an area of about 240,000 ㎡. There are 1258 varieties and more than 300000 peony trees. Domestic peony varieties include those from Central China, Northwest China, Southwest China and Jiangnan (the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River ). Foreign peony varieties include those from Japan, Europe and America. Sui and Tang Dynasties Town Botanical Garden is one of the gardens that have the most peony varieties in China.

Address: No. 3 Luobai Road, Luolong District, Luoyang City (河南省洛阳市洛龙区洛白路3号)
Opening Hours: 08:00-18:00
Ticket during Luoyang Peony Festival: CNY 50
Full-blossom Period: Around April 20

Shenzhou Peony Garden enjoys a favorable location as it is just opposite White Horse Temple - the first Buddhist temple in China. It covers an area of 400,000 ㎡, collecting 1021 famous and excellent peony varieties at home and abroad with more than 400000 plants.

Apart from many Tang Dynasty style buildings and large-scale peony-themed art performances, the highlights of Shenzhou Peony Garden include the rare peony stone naturally formed in millions of years, the Peony King that is more than 300 years old, the world's longest 100-meter national treasure gallery - the Tang tri-colored peony murals, and the world's largest white marble statue of Ouyang Xiu (AD 1007-1072) - a famous Chinese scholar.

Address: 100m west of Wangcheng Avenue, Jichang Road, Luoyang City (河南省洛阳市机场路王城大道口西100米)
Opening Hours: 08:00-18:00
Ticket during Luoyang Peony Festival: CNY 40
Full-blossom Period: April 20 - May 10

Luoyang International Peony Garden is the largest late flowering peony garden in Central China and a fine peony garden gathering famous peony varieties both from home and abroad. It covers an area of about 30 hectares, composed of five gardens with more than 300 kinds of precious peony varieties in China and more than 100 peony varieties in Japan, France and the United States. The natural peony flowering period here is from mid April to mid May, about 7-10 days later than those planted in Luoyang downtown. A large number of tourists have been attracted here since its establishment. If you visit Luoyang in late April, Luoyang International Peony Garden is the place you will still have a chance to see the blooming peonies.

Usually, it takes 2 ~ 3 days to have a Luoyang tour. The highlights of Luoyang include Longmen Grottoes which is known as the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art, 1900-year-old White Horse Temple (also China's first Buddhist temple), 2000-year-old burial site - Tianzi Jialiu Museum and beautiful Luoyang Museum with a lot of history to tell. Of course, you can't miss a Kung Fu exploration in Shaolin Temple (in Dengfeng city) if you visit Luoyang. It is only 55 km (about 1.5 hours' drive) away from Luoyang City.

☛ 2 Days Luoyang Longmen Grottoes Tour
☛ 3 Days Luoyang Kung Fu Tour

It's strongly recommended to extend your Luoyang tour to its attractive neighbors. After Shaolin Temple visit, you can spend 1 day exploring Zhengzhou or Kaifeng. If you are fond of nature, Mount Yuntai, Guoliang Village and Xiaolangdi Reservoir on Yellow River are recommended.

However, the best way to extend your Luoyang trip is starting a Xian Tour. Owning world-class treasures, Xian offers a lot to see and do. Taking a 1.5~2 hours high speed train, you can unveil an incredible experience of two old capital cities. It is quite popular to travel Beijing and Xian with Luoyang, because Luoyang is just located between them. Get inspired from our Xian Luoyang Tours now!

☛ 6 Days Ancient Xian & Henan Tour （Xian / Luoyang / Dengfeng / Zhengzhou）
☛ 8 Days China Ancient Capitals Tour (Beijing / Luoyang / Xian)
☛ 10 Days China Culture Tour Plus Shaolin Kung Fu Experience (Beijing / Xian / Luoyang / Dengfeng / Zhengzhou / Shanghai)

Luoyang and nearby Shaolin Temple are very popular with our customers. Since 2012, we have helped thousands of customers visited the region successfully. With our fully-inclusive private tour packages, all of our customers enjoyed their trips to magnificent Longmen Grottoes, legendary Shaolin Temple, educational Luoyang Museum, beautiful Yuntain Mountain, etc. Some of them even had the rare opportunities to take part in the grand International Peony Festival in Luoyang. Many customers suggest visit Luoyang with Beijing, Xian, Pingyao and Shandong in northern China to explore authentic Chinese culture. Below are some inspiring travel stories:

★ Cultural Immersion Trip in Ancient Capitals of China （Beijing - Taiyuan - Pingyao - Xian - Luoyang - Dengfeng - Zhengzhou - Kaifeng - Qufu - Mount Tai - Beijing）
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