Wang Yuanyuan
The Chinese Rose Palace at Shenzhen People’s Park, Luohu District, will be rebuilt into a large exhibition center at the end of the year.
“The center will be built into one of the best Chinese rose exhibition centers in China for residents to appreciate the beautiful flowers and also for popularizing Chinese roses around the world,” said Chen Yuhua, 72, one of the most famous Chinese rose growers and painters.
The facelift of the more-than-1,000-square-meter Chinese Rose Palace was approved by the Shenzhen Municipal Urban Management Bureau early this year, but detailed plans are still being discussed.
The Chinese rose, which is bigger than other roses, normally grows in spring and summer in northern China. All roses in the world are now bred from the Chinese rose, and more than 50 cities in China have designated the Chinese rose as their city flower.
“Shenzhen has its unique opportunities in building a platform for exhibiting Chinese roses. It can create a successful commercial chain for popularizing Chinese roses in other parts of China and overseas,” Chen said.
“The Chinese roses in Shenzhen are of top quality. I’d like to build a long-term connection with Shenzhen in the fields of rose planting and popularizing Shenzhen’s Chinese roses in the future,” Gerald Meylan, president of the World Federation of Rose Societies, said during his visit to the park Saturday.
“China has a very long history of growing roses. All modern roses in Europe now are originally from China. You can see it from all the modern roses around the world,” Meylan added.
Meylan, from Switzerland, earlier visited the 2008 China Chinese Rose Exhibition in Beijing. He made a special trip to Shenzhen after learning that the Luohu park had won many international and national prizes for its Chinese roses.
The Chinese Rose Palace was built Dec. 18, 1993 and is now one of the five biggest Chinese rose planting bases in China. More than 200 varieties of Chinese rose are grown in the palace, including the well-known Peace Rose.