Chongqing- The World of Peony and Sakura is a destination for rural tourism in Xinmin Village of Dianjiang County, Chongqing.
Inside the park, there are many attractions such as an indoor botanical garden, a rose garden designed as a maze, a hilltop pagoda with picturesque views over the surrounding countryside, a large playground with fun activities for people of all ages, and a Tang Dynasty old town area that will open to visitors in the near future.
As expected, I found the serene country atmosphere and variety of attractive landscapes inside the park to be very appealing, especially the maze lined with roses, the pleasant viewing spots from on top of the hill, as well as the walk bridge where tourists need to don a climbing harness and cross to the other side along with steps with gaps in between.
The relaxed atmosphere in the park was perfectly illustrated by a friendly group of ladies who had come to admire the flowers in bloom. When I met them by chance in the hilltop pagoda, they enthusiastically filled my hands with snack foods like sausage slices, chunks of pomelo, and even a boiled egg. They were also curious about where I was from and my line of work and rounded off this happy encounter with a group photograph.
Happy World is a fun open-air playground inside the park, where there are gentle rides for toddlers, rope climbing frames, and tall slides for older children. The top experience for adults is the bridge walkway around twenty meters above the ground, allowing visitors to slowly admire the park from an elevated position without providing a great test of nerves, even for those who would normally fear heights.
There is also a fairly genuine old town area near the park exit themed on Tang Dynasty styles. Although this section is yet to open to the public, we had the opportunity to look around and see the activities on offer. Some that caught my eye were a small performance courtyard, a giant Chinese chessboard built using ground slabs, and a stone contraption that can be used to grind tofu beans as in ancient times.
Since our time was limited to one morning, there were some other experiences like boating on the lake and horse riding that we didn’t have the chance to try, but seeing how the park offers plenty to keep visitors of all ages interested for a whole day, I do expect to come again in the near future.
In this vlog, experience the highlights of a fun morning at the World of Peony and Sakura with iChongqing reporter James and admire the spring scenes on offer in Dianjiang County, which has been renowned for millennia as a home for Chinese medicinal herbs and a wide variety of beautiful flora!