西双版纳热带植物园 - Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden

On Saturday, I had the wonderful opportunity to take a quick plane ride to the extreme south of Yunnan Province in order to visit the highly renowned Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG). This vast garden is one of the few gardens in the Chinese Academy of Sciences that is not in an urban center but is instead in a remote rural area. The garden is located in the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan Province, bordering Myanmar (Burma) and Laos. This area, like the rest of the province is rich in minority culture, but in Xishuangbanna the most prevalent is that of the Dai people (closely related to the Thai people who predominate in nearby Thailand). The strong Thai influence can be seen in the architecture as well as cultural traditions in the area, and it is also reflected throughout the garden.



Of all of the gardens I have been able to visit so far on this trip, it was most similar to Beijing Botanical Garden (north) in terms of the level of horticultural display, and yet it is still quite different since it is in a tropical climate. Due to a change in flight number and a delay due to weather, I ended up arriving nearly 3 hours after my original arrival time. However, I was warmly met at the airport by several staff members from the botanical garden who kindly treated me to lunch (a warm respite from the adventure in the morning). Upon arriving at the botanical garden, I was met by one of the garden's many researchers, working on her doctorate, who gave me a tour highlighting the garden's collections and displays. After the excellent tour, I met with the director, Dr. CHEN Jin, who welcomed the exchange program I am proposing and provided some insightful comments as to how best to structure it. I think that you will be able to tell from the included pictures that XTBG is an amazing place!