Who doesn't like a good love story?

At a flower valley in the outskirts of Chengdu City, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, you will find the world's largest collection of hollyhocks with over 720 varieties of the flower. You will also come to know that the 800,000-square-meter garden is the labor of love.

Zhou Xiaolin and Yin Jie have been married for 28 years. And they still can't find any shortcomings in each other; instead, only goodness and virtue.

The idea of a flower garden came to Yin about a decade ago. Zhou granted her this wish and turned a wasteland into a vast garden now housing a thousand types of plants and flowers.

This valley is now six years in the making.

"We feel like we're still dating. Now, we date with flowers. Ever since we moved here to the flower valley, life has become much simpler for us, our happiness index has gone higher," said Yin.

Flowers native to Sichuan Province

The "Valley of Flowers" prides itself for being the world's largest planted area of hollyhocks and hibiscus, and China's largest garden for native lilies.

Hollyhocks were discovered and cultivated in Sichuan Province over 2,000 years ago, Zhou said.

"But over the years, hollyhocks found their way to places along the Silk Road. Wherever people settled, there would be hollyhocks. It has become our messenger to the world, spreading the beauty of China," he added.

"It took us 10 years to collect the seeds, and bring them back to where they belong — their hometown."

Another Sichuan pride is the "lilium regale" or royal lilies.

"The native lily is one of the oldest ancestors of lilies, and is also the modern gardening lily of the world. When foreign gardeners, who, in the search for roots for their lilies back home, step into our garden and see the birthplace of their flowers, they can't help but shed tears," Yin shared.

Zhou hopes the garden can eventually become a small exhibit to showcase the beauty of Chengdu, Sichuan, and China to the world.

"After all, China is home to world-famous gardens and the kingdom of world flowers. We dedicate this garden to our motherland. It will be our generation's cultural heritage for the future."

Much to learn from plants

Zhou and Yin liken planting and growing these flowers to that of growing through life.

"Our land has taught us to be honest. When do you sow the seeds? When do you water them, when do you fertilize, and when do you weed? You can't 'fake it,' so to speak, in front of your land. It's the same with life — we should be down to earth, and treat it with sincerity and with heart," Zhou said.

He said he feels sorry that many in this day and age have stopped caring about plants, and lack the understanding of, respect and appreciation to flora.

He believes the best gift the ancestors had passed down in the past 5,000 years is the plants — rice, soybeans, and tea among others.

"We should cherish the mentality of reverence for nature and plants," Zhou said.

"I want to thank these plants for living with us on this planet — for bringing us so much (material and spiritual) influence. Rice can give us food, and all kinds of flowers can bring us joy."

Ultimately, Zhou said plants have certain biological qualities that are worth our learning.

"Every plant, from the point of sowing, survives and grows stronger day by day. When it blossoms, it shows its most beautiful side. Hollyhocks, for example, have undergone the process of pollination, before blooming during springtime," he shared.

"It's just like us humans — we should also have that spirit in life. We ought to take our lives seriously. During the good times and bad, we have to be happy and live healthily."

And indeed, through thick and thin, the two had remained together.

Zhou and Yin met when Zhou was a tour guide of a trip decades ago; and Yin, a visitor on that tour. Both were students at the time. Living in different provinces, they were pen pals for five years before Zhou came running to Beijing with a marriage proposal asking for her hand in marriage. 

But she didn't say "I do." In fact, she told him, "Even if I were to marry 10,000 men, you will not be the 10,001st." But he persisted and rented a room near her hospital where she was working as a nurse.

Yin then told her mom, "I'll take a bet on him. If he treats me well, I'll be with him for the rest of my life. If not, I'll just come home in a month." The rest, as they say, is history.

(Video filmed by Wu Siyi)