By Parker, Reporter

I've lived in Chongqing for eight years but have never gotten the chance to visit the sea of flowers in Tongnan. So I got in a car and headed up there on a beautiful spring day. I never expected how beautiful it really was.

If you come to Chongqing during the spring I highly recommend going to the sea of flowers for a short day trip or spring drive.  However, be sure to come during March or April as the flowers bloom does not last long.

It turns out that the sea of flowers and it's village have a history of over a thousand years and is a home to a famous Taoist priest called 陈抟(chentuan). Later, because of the flowers used in making canola oil, the flowers grew more and more until multiple fields were combined and made a huge sea of flowers that you can see today.  The weather conditions in Tongnan are favorable - more than 300 days of sunlight and 359 days of good quality air. 

As we got there I saw, customary to lots of scenic areas in China, a large statue of a figure. Also, to that effect, there were many shops, concessions, food and fruit for sale. Tongnan is a city of vegetables and I can see why, as we approached I saw many lemon trees outside the window and sure enough dried lemons and other fruit were for sale. Most importantly, however, was the sea of flowers. It truly was a sight to behold with yellow bright Canola flowers stretching into the horizon. We met our guide there and she took us to a private boat with sailed up and down a small river that cut through the sea of flowers. Truly breathtaking!  In addition to boats, there are bicycles, carts, helicopters and even horses for rent. All modes of transportation were represented to enjoy the sea of flowers!

We left the mountains of the main city and entered the hilly lowlands of the Sichuan Basin. As we approached Tongnan I could see out the window patches of bright yellow canola flower (also known as rapeseed) starting to appear. This gave me a hint of what was to come. But I never expected how big the sea of flowers really was.