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Home Travel in Yunnan Luoping - the Cole Flower Sea
Luoping - the Cole Flower Sea
Travel in Yunnan

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Located 230 kilometers east of Kunming (kūn míng 昆明), the capital city of Yunnan province (yún nán shěng 云南省), and neighboring Guizhou (guì zhōu 贵州) and Guangxi (guǎng xī 广西) Provinces, Luoping County (luó píng xiàn 罗平县) is home to one of the largest plantations of rapeseed flowers in Southwest China. Fields covered with golden rape stretch as far as the eye can see and form seas of yellow buds. Combined with a unique terrain dominated by karst features with small basins among mountain ranges, the place boasts very unique landscape features. On top of that majestic waterfalls can be found in the area. All of this makes Luoping a very unique attractive destination for traveling.

In February and March of every year, the cole flowers planting in the 200,000 mus of fields are in full bloom in the basin of Luoping. Looking widely, you just see golden yellow stretching to the horizon. No matter who stands in the biggest natural garden, he will think highly of Luoping. The annual Cole Flowers Tourist Festival in Luoping (luó píng yóu cài huā lǚ yóu jié 罗平油菜花旅游节) of Yunnan will make you feel the harmony between human beings and the nature, and enjoy the beautiful sights fully.
 

Sites for Admiring Cole Flowers

Jinjiling

luoping2Jinjiling (jīn jī lǐng 金鸡岭) is the classic spot for photographing rapeseed flowers of Luoping. It offers an excellent and expansive view of the fields and hills in north-south direction. Located in the middle of the hill, Lingyi Temple (líng yí sì 灵仪寺) offers a perfect platform for site seeing. The only problem with Jinjiling hill is that the fields that spread below it are flat.

If you stand on the Jingjiling in the morning, the white fog disappears and golden sea will come out. The many islands stand still in the sea of flowers. The golden shuttles of morning sun go past the sea of flowers. The shining yellow will make you relaxed and happy. The best site for taking pictures is the Sight Admiring Platform of the Jingjiling because it is easy to find views from different angles there. Many pictures of Luoping in the album have been taken from here.

It will cost you 2 yuan from Luoping to the Jinjiling by minibuses and the travel will take you about 10 minutes. You can also take pedicabs, and it will cost you 10 yuan and take you about 15 minutes. By the way, you can get off any time you want to take pictures if you go by pedicabs. The price for the tickets of the Jinjiling is 2 yuan, but it is possible that two persons buy only one ticket.

Niu Street

luoping3The best site for admiring cole flowers at Niu Street (niú jiē 牛街) is on the slope. Looking down at the cole flowers with all kinds of patterns, you will find some of them are like eyes, some like butterflies. You can use your imagination as possible as you can. The sites for admiring flowers at Niu Street are not like those on the Jingjiling.

You can take minibuses from Luoping to Niu Street. This will cost you 4 yuan and take you about 40 minutes. There are no minibuses at night, so you can take pedicabs from Luoping to Niu Street. It will cost you about 20 yuan. You have to talk the price over with the owner before hand to make sure it is 20 yuan per person or 20 yuan per pedicab.

Shiwanda Mountain

Shiwanda Mountain (shí wàn dà shān 十万大山) is about thirteen kilometers away from Luoping town in the direction of Baise (bǎi sè 百色). Landscape here is not as grandiose as at Jinjiling and the place apparently is not very well-known. However, it much more exciting for photography and site seeing: terrain here is hilly and much more varied; it thus offers many more creative opportunities - it is one of those places where you can have several photographers shooting for an hour and producing entirely different images.

Luositian

luoping4Luositian (luó sī tián 螺蛳田) at Niujie are located a few kilometers to the north of Luoping town. Again, the fields here are of smaller scale and, unlike Jinjiling and Shiwanda Mountain, are carved out of a shallow valley with gentle slopes. As you follow the road on the opposite slope and view them from an increasingly higher viewpoint, you may discover that the flowers are grown in circular rings following the contours of the slopes and the fields look like the rings of a snail's shell.

Jiulong Waterfalls

luoping5Jiulong Waterfalls (jiǔ lóng pù bù 九龙瀑布) is a ten-tier waterfall located within an hour's drive from Luoping town and listed as one of China's biggest and most beautiful waterfalls. First take a cable car or hike up the hill to the platform viewing the valley and the waterfalls and photograph the grand vista. After that you can walk further and down the hill to the biggest waterfall (56 meters high and 112 meters wide) to see the landscape.

Apart from the destinations mentioned above there is also a place called Duoyihe River (duō yī hé 多依河). It is located 40 kilometers south-east of Luoping town and said to be interesting because it is home to the Buyi Minority (bù yī zú 布依族). You will need at least two full days to explore these sites.


Transportation

Luoping is 230 kilometers away from Kunming, and 80 kilometers away from Xingyi City (xìng yì 兴义市) of Guizhou Province. The National Highway No. 324 and Nanning-Kunming railway run through the city. From Kunming to Luoping, it will take you 5 hours by car and 4 hours by train.


Tips


luoping6The cole flowers are in their fullest bloom for only ten days in a year. If you go too early, you will miss nothing; but if you go too late, you will miss much. So it is better to set out after you get everything clear. If it is warm early, the flowers will bloom early. The prime time is from round about February, 20th to 25th. Until March, the flowers would have faded. But if it gets warm late, the flowers will bloom late. Anyway, the time for the blooming is different from year to year. March is not always the best choice.