With the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity held in Kunming, the greenhouse group named Fuli Palace in Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Baofeng Wetland Park are becoming popular attractions in Kunming. Let’s have a look at these places and find out why they have gained sudden popularity in Kunming .

On October 10, relevant heads of China’s central and national ministries and commissions and some provincial, regional and municipal leaders went to Fuli palace, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences to participate in the outdoor investigation activities of the first phase of the COP15.

"Fuli Palace" is the earliest documented greenhouse in the world. It was built in Shanglin Garden during the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and used to grow southern fruits and exotic flowers. Academician Wu Zhengyi, a famous botanist, borrowed this allusion to name the greenhouse group. With the "Fuli Palace" greenhouse group as the core, the COP15 Conference Biodiversity Experience Park consists of the main greenhouse, Orchid Museum, Insectivorous Plant Museum, Hidden Flower Plant Museum and so on. 

The main greenhouse covers an area of 4,200 square meters and collects more than 1,800 kinds of plants, displaying a wealth of wonderful tropical fruits and aquatic plants, such as the space banana, royal water lily, pandanus. You can also see peculiar tropical rainforest landscapes, such as single tree forest, sky gardens, dripping leaf tips, and exotic tropical desert plants, like plants from inland Australia, Savannah in Africa, and deserts in the Americas.

In the Insectivorous Plant Museum, there are 680 taxa of insectivorous plants with 378 native species, including pitcher grass, thatched plaster and bottle grass.

The Orchid Museum has a collection of more than 600 species of terrestrial and epiphytic orchids, including more than 400 species of epiphytic dendrobium.

At the Kunming Botanical Garden of Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, "Fuli Palace" has now preserved a total of more than 2500 species of characteristic plants, fully demonstrating the rich biodiversity and unique ecological landscape of the "Plant Kingdom".

As a COP15 outdoor display project, Baofeng Wetland Park with both natural beauty and a wide collection is worth visiting.

Baofeng Wetland is located on the east bank of Dianchi Lake in Guandu District, Kunming, next to Kunming International Convention and Exhibition Center, covering an area of 1633.8 mu; among which, there is 286 acres of biodiversity core display area.

There are a total of 101 plant species in the Baofeng Wetland Biodiversity Core Exhibition Area. The wetland has also created favorable habitat conditions for fish. Many rare species have settled here one after another, attracting 100 precious birds, such as colored ibis, grey cranes, and pond herons. Fishes such as Sinocyclocheilus grahami, a national secondary protected animal, have also been rebred and reproduced in the wetland.

It is worth mentioning that Baofeng Wetland utilizes the existing ponds to plant lotus, ridges to plant native tree species such as Yunnan willow, farmlands to plant rice to restore the farmlands, fish ponds, and wetland environment. All of this has improved the ecological function and water cycle of wetland, creating world’s rare natural scenery of plateau lakes and lakeside ecosystems with Dianchi Lake landscape as the cultural background.

Baofeng Wetland is expected to be opened to the public with free entry by the end of this year. Let’s go and visit it then! Right now, we can take a look at the beautiful pictures first.

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(Editors:Ines, Amy)