Let a million flowers bloom

摘要

From midnight until 4am trading is keen and fast at the Dounan Flower Market in a suburb of Kunming, capital of the south-western province of Yunnan. Trucks laden with radiant, perfumed blooms clog the surrounding roads. By mid-morning petals litter the ground and most of the 14m stems sold each day are on their way to destinations around China and beyond. Since the local government turned a budding local enterprise into China's biggest wholesale flower market in 1999, Dounan has become the main supplier of blooms to courting couples and contrite husbands across the country: demand fuelled by a middle-class boom. Yunnan has rapidly emerged as China's dominant flower-growing region. In 1994 it had a mere 133 hectares (329 acres) of flower farmland. By 2013 it had 67,400 hectares and accounted for about a third of China's blossom exports-helped by expanding international air links in a province that was once isolated from global markets. China now accounts for more than a quarter of land worldwide devoted to growing flowers and pot plants, according to the International Association of Horticultural Producers, a trade association based in Switzerland.