CHINA 5A TRAVEL
A 5A 'forest expo park' built for the 2006 International Horticultural Exposition — 2.46 km² of show gardens, flower seas and a 125-m lily tower in east Shenyang.
What began in October 1959 as a modest city botanical garden — opened to the public in 1993 — became a world stage for 184 days in 2006, when the China Shenyang International Horticultural Exposition planted its show gardens across this 2.46-km² forest estate 10 km east of downtown; the park has worn the nickname 'the Expo Garden in the forest' (森林中的世博园) ever since. In 2007 it entered the first batch of China's National 5A Scenic Areas, and for years it stood as Shenyang's only one.
The expo's living legacy is roughly 100 show gardens — 23 international ones reaching from Russia and Korea to Kenya, more than 50 Chinese city gardens and some two dozen specialized plant collections — sheltering 2,200-plus species, the largest plant collection of any botanical garden in Northeast China. The calendar never idles: four million tulips in late April and May, peonies and irises as summer arrives, lilies and lotus through July, a 600,000-plant chrysanthemum show each autumn, and a foliage finale of red maples and pink muhly grass.
Experience it the way Shenyang families do: walk in beneath the leaning steel Phoenix Wings, ride the elevator up the 125-m Lily Tower for views from the Qipanshan hills to the Hun River, wobble across forty-odd game bridges above lotus lakes, then wrap up with a lawn picnic or a coaster run through the trees. Since June 2025 the Metro's Line 1 east extension has stopped at Botanical Garden Station, putting the UNESCO-listed East Tombs and Bird Island on the same easy line.
Highlights
Phoenix Wings (凤之翼)
The expo's leaning steel gateway — a 72-m tower with 210-m wings and a 1,000-m² musical fountain playing below its stay cables.
Lily Tower (百合塔)
A 125-m sculpted lily and the park's high point — elevator to a 95-m deck with Qipanshan's hills, the Hun River and the skyline in one turn.
Rose Garden (玫瑰园)
A 10,000-m² heated glasshouse where Shenyang's city flower blooms through snowy winters — complete with a gold-foil rose and a second-floor marriage registry.
The Flower Calendar
Four million Dutch tulips in spring, lilies and lotus in July, 600,000 chrysanthemums in autumn — a headline show every month of the season.
International Gardens
Twenty-three country gardens from Dutch tulip terraces to Japanese courtyards — a round-the-world stroll in an afternoon.
Game Bridges & Forest Rides
Forty-odd wobbly bridges over lotus lakes plus a 55,000-m² forest amusement park — the engine of any family day.
Photo Gallery
Comments