800,000 Mu of Oilseed Rape Flowers Extend Limitlessly, Forming China’s Largest Flower Sea – Lop County Visitors Don’t Look at the Flowers

Driving the No. 324 National Highway from Kunming eastward, you can see scattered rapeseed flowers by the roadside after passing through Shizong County. Near Lop County, the flat terrain along the mountain ridges and the fragrant rapeseed flowers come in waves, bringing a sense of calm to a restless journey.

After turning onto White La Mountain, I was suddenly unable to adapt to the dazzling and boundless golden expanse. The mountains were golden, the earth was golden, and the sky seemed golden, everywhere flowing with golden hues, with not a trace of color. Even the air of Lop County seemed to shimmer with gold.

The planting of rapeseed flowers in Lop County dates back to the middle of the Ming Dynasty 500 years ago. It is only planted once a year, is easy to cultivate. Common rapeseed flowers have 4 petals, with slender and tapering branches forming a well-arranged golden small pagoda, with abundant pollen. It is both a vegetable and can be eaten as fresh stems, fresh leaves and flowers, and also for pressing oil.

During the winter and spring agricultural holiday crop cultivation rest period, rapeseed seeds are scattered in the fields, after planting for about two months, they bloom into numerous yellow flowers. They are harvested and pressed into oil in April every year, resulting in bumper harvests and continuous growth in scale. Hundreds of years ago, it was originally a wild plant, now it has become a human's survival need.

It is unknown when the rapeseed flower fields began to bring Lop County to the attention of the world. It complements the distant mountains and near water, merges with cloud and mist peaks and seas. From a single plant to a block, to a bay, and extends to the horizon, open in a vast expanse.

Approximately 800,000 mu of rapeseed flower fields stretch endlessly and impressively, forming China's largest flower sea wonder. And Lop's Nujiayizong (300,000 mu) in Nujiayizong has been successfully recorded in Guinness World Records, considered a unique and largest garden in the world.

The large bus seemed like a small boat navigating through the rapeseed flower sea for nearly an hour, still unable to see the end. At the request of many passengers, the driver stopped the vehicle. Standing in place and turning 360 degrees, I felt the intense golden light rushing from all directions, making it impossible to escape.

I first felt that color is not static and unchanging, but rather dynamic and joyful. The breeze blew, the flowers swayed and danced, like waves rising in the sea, creating a dynamic and lively presentation in various colors, including pure stone yellow, vibrant gold, orange yellow with red hues, and delicate pale yellow. It has a strong sense of movement and vitality.

Lop County is located on the Yunlu Plateau at the junction of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces, belongs to the east of the city of Chuxing. It has a unique and superior geographical location, with typical karst landforms. The scenery is beautiful and varied, with no severe winters and no scorching summers. It is a typical area of multi-ethnic minority gathering, with the most of the Broads in the multi-river areas of the Do-i and Long rivers, accounts for nearly 70% of the province's Broads population.

Early the next morning, we carefully organized our equipment and headed to the northeast of the county seat, to the golden peak, where a local photographer told us that the rapeseed flower fields there were the most flat and expansive. The misty weather ahead, with a visibility of only 3 meters, made it difficult to drive the car forward slowly.

In the early morning, the misty village of Shanhuatang shrouded in mist, smoke rose from the village, intertwined with the mist to form a pale green circle. As the sun rose, the village became clearer, and hardworking Broads women began their day's work.

The adult men in the village couldn't stand loneliness and went out to make a living. The old men on the side of the road listened to the smoke without uttering a word, overlooking the visitors who broke their quiet lives.

The mist floated lightly, becoming lighter and more transparent. Suddenly, the thin mist was as if someone had suddenly shaken it open, revealing a golden flower sea. Climbing to the Golden Peak, the view was like a large expanse of golden ground cover, I wanted to jump in and roll around.

Countless green-clothed people, isolated and like women's beautiful breasts, cone-shaped mountains stretched far away from the misty sea. The distant black dots moved slightly, when the mist dissipated, carefully looked at it turned out to be farmers driving oxen to plow the fields.

The rapeseed flower fields in Lop County are mainly distributed in Golden Peak, Nujiayizong and Ten Thousand Villages and other areas of hills, flat land and terraced fields. In different seasons, various rapeseed flower fields formed various shapes and colors due to different crops.

The rapeseed flower fields are golden and brilliant; blooming buds are jade-like green; harvested terraced fields reveal the characteristic red of karst landforms. There are also bow-shaped and half-circular terraced fields.

'The Wormhole Field' in Nujiayizong, Lop County, is one of the most famous rapeseed flower fields in the world. Due to the unique geological formations of the interlocking rock, it is a rare and densely funnel-shaped structure in China. Because the terraced fields for planting rapeseed are circular, when viewed from a distance, they resemble screws, so the local people call it 'Wormhole Field'.

If the Golden Peak rapeseed flower fields are known for their flatness and magnificence, Nujiayizong 'Wormhole Field' is known for its mystery and uncertainty, and Ten Thousand Villages are known for their terraced fields. Then the rapeseed flowers wild on the banks of the 'Do-i River' where the Broads people live is also full of the mountains, open, and free, close to everyone.

The composition, color and lines are perfectly integrated, seamless, and still there is no artist or ethnic group on Earth that can create such a harmonious and vibrant artwork of nature and man.

Lop people integrated their lives into the rapeseed flower fields, and engraved the arteries of life into the earth, carefully cultivated and 'painted' with seven layers of paint.

Only by Lop people over several generations diligently cultivating this extraordinary landscape with the help of the unique landforms and the favorable climate, and the Broads people's hard work, Lop has created this world's largest natural art masterpiece.