Beijing's major streets and ring roads have been coated with blooming pink Chinese roses, adding more colors to the national capital with a pleasant view.
Roses grow along the second, third and fourth ring roads -- the main arteries of Beijing. The city's greening department says it selected a special variety for the traffic-heavy roads.
"The variety selected for the Guomao bridge area is Yueding, a new strain we cultivated on our own in Beijing. This strain of rose is prominent in its improvement the rose's traits of vehicle exhaust-, drought-, and heat-resistance, and its flowering period is longer with greater flower volume," said Ji Peng, deputy director of the Urban Greening Division of Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau.
The pink Chinese rose Yueding's flowering period lasts from early May to mid-November, up to 200 days.
To guarantee the growth and ultra-long flowering period of the roses, the greening department has installed smart irrigation systems in bridge areas, with flower boxes equipped with precision drip irrigation devices that automatically adjust water volume and irrigation time according to weather conditions.
The Chinese rose is the city flower of Beijing and has become an iconic flower for the city's ecological landscape.
Currently, Beijing has grown nearly 2,000 Chinese rose varieties, including some 200 self-bred varieties, and has built rose landscape belts stretching over 1,000 kilometers.
"In the process of building the capital into a garden city, we focus on creating greening scenes around people's living quarters. Different areas are decorated with different colors to match their tone, allowing people to have refreshed feelings about the surroundings when they go from place to place. This is also to keep citizens in a pleasant mood when they are commuting to and from work," Ji said.
Blooming Chinese roses decorate Beijing's major roads
