Yunnan Fengzeyuan Botanical Garden is located in Baiyi, Songming County. It is the upstream water source of Songhua dam reservoir in northeast of Kunming City. 40 km from downtown Kunming, it covers an area of 60 hectares, with thousands of acres of plants. Moreover, it is the birthplace of Panlong River and Dianchi Lake. It is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and there is a dragon palace and a Buddhist temple in the garden.
After a few years of construction, water resource and plants in the botanical garden had been improved to a better level. Rare Ottelia acuminata grows in the clear streams near the dragon palace. Ottelia acuminata has white petals and yellow flowers that require high quality water to grow.
The wonderful scenery, rich cultural background and long history have made the garden a favoured place for locals and tourists.Heilongtan (black dragon pool) used to be a dragon palace and then gradually evolved into a Buddhist temple. It was founded in the first year of Ming dynasty (1488). And it has been repaired since Ming and Qing dynasties. The plaque in the middle of the temple says “Blessing Panlong River” by Emperor Guangxu. And the eminent geographer and traveler Xu Xiake, once paid his visit to the dragon palace and he wrote: “It is unpredictable how deep the dragon pond is”.
Longyuan Road is rather quite during weekdays but it turns into a small market during weekends. Locals keep their tradition on going to the market on Saturdays and Sundays. Therefore, vendors and sellers gather around each weekend, selling homegrown vegies, flowers and some local snacks.
（Reference/photo: Internet）