BOTANICAL GARDEN

The botanical garden occupies a peninsula formed by a loop of the river Luoso, a tributary of the Mekong. A long, suspended pedestrian bridge crosses the river where children are entertained. You have to cross a palm grove and a small forest with 120 of the 400 Chinese species of bamboo (1 000 of them all around the world), before arriving at the small museum and the buildings of the "tropical plants in Yunnan". Inside the park, part of the original virgin forest still survives and serves as the Institute for Tropical Botanical Research. This park was founded in 1959 by the famous Chinese botanist Cai Xiatou. Of the 900 ha of surface, there are 2 000 different tropical plants from China and other countries (medicinal plants, rare trees, tropical or subtropical fruit trees). There is also an herbarium of plants from southern Yunnan, as well as various buildings for scientists and their research.