Blooming rapeseed flowers shower SW China's Yunnan in gold

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Every year between February and March, roughly 3 million tourists descend upon the small county of Luoping in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Though many of them will be sporting high-end DSLR cameras and expensive lenses, the vast majority will make do with their smartphones. They’ve all come for one thing: To see Luoping’s famed fields of rapeseed flowers.

The Economy of Flowers

China is the world’s second largest producer of rapeseed items. /CGTN Photo

With its boundless fields of gold punctuated by gentle hillocks and hazy mountains that straddle the horizon, it’s no wonder why Luoping County is a hit with shutterbugs.

Those serious about photography will get up before dawn to stake their claim of a good vantage point, in order to capture the sunrise over Luoping’s meadows. However, it’s not all about the looks: Luoping is one of China’s biggest rapeseed growing regions, home to some 53,000 hectares of the plant.

Most beekeepers are seasonal workers from other parts of China. /CGTN Photo‍

Its oil-rich seeds are used to produce everything from fertilizer to biodiesel, and it’s the 3rd largest source of vegetable oil in the world. If you’re from North America, you probably know it better as canola.

Liquid Gold

Thanks to all these flowers, beekeeping is big business. During spring, temporary tents and wooden hive boxes pepper the rapeseed fields and you can’t walk ten meters without someone offering to sell you their amber-colored honey.

Every spring, Luoping county holds its Rapeseed Flower Festival. /CGTN Photo

Beekeepers say the stuff harvested here is richer and thicker than that of rapeseed honey found elsewhere in of China.

(Explore China with Travelogue host Tianran He on CGTN. Travelogue broadcasts on Sundays at 7:30am and 4:30pm, Mondays at 2:00am and Thursdays at 1:30pm, Beijing Time).