City of roses brings beauty, joy to people

Ringed with floral 'necklace'

Early summer in Beijing brings a floral spectacle along the city's ring roads. Chinese roses are now in full bloom along the median strips of the Fourth Ring Road, drawing commuters to admire their vibrant colors and heady fragrance.

Social media is buzzing with posts recommending the best spots, with netizens calling the green belts "May's romantic highlight". One commuter remarked, "I usually rush home after work, but lately I stop to enjoy the flowers. The city feels more romantic."

Landscaping of the Fourth Ring Road is being upgraded this year, the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau said.

New rose varieties now complement the established ones, offering longer blooming cycles and more abundant flowers. The flowering season has been extended from May through late October. When completed in November, the 65.3-kilometer-long project will create a continuous "rose necklace" of an estimated 710,000 plants citywide.

In Beijing's hutongs, roses flourish — climbing walls, spilling over fences, and softening the edges of small gardens. For locals, these flowers are not a luxury; they are a familiar presence, a splash of beauty in everyday life.

Wang Meng, 38, was born and raised in the hutong area of Hufangqiao, in the southern part of the city. One of her favorite places to enjoy Chinese roses is Taoranting Park near her home.

After obtaining a master's in gardening from China Agricultural University, Wang started working at the park in 2013. She now serves as a senior engineer in landscape architecture.

"Growing up in the hutongs, Chinese roses were always around," she recalled."They're part of the neighborhood, part of our memories. This park lets me see them in full bloom, and it feels like the city itself is celebrating with me."

Established in 1952, Taoranting Park was one of the first large public parks in Beijing after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Unlike imperial gardens, which were private and formal, Taoranting Park was intended as a place for ordinary citizens to relax, socialize and enjoy nature, earning its reputation as the "People's Park".

Stepping into the rose garden, known as the Shengchun Shan Fang Rose Area, feels like entering a world made entirely of colors and scents.

Wang said with more than 19,000 plants of 20 varieties, the garden is a living tapestry that constantly changes with the seasons, filling the air with layers of fragrance.

"It's not just a garden — it's a space crafted for strolling, lingering and losing oneself amid Beijing's most beloved roses," she said."Ubiquitous yet essential, Chinese roses are the subtle color running through the heart of Beijing."

Every morning, Zhang Xin walks the paths of the rose garden, his eyes scanning almost every leaf and bud.

Zhang, 38, is a specialist in Chinese rose care. But his work doesn't end in the garden. He also spends hours in the park's greenhouse cultivation area, carefully nurturing roses according to their blooming cycles and monitoring plants. "Each plant has its own schedule, and I have to guide it patiently so that when it reaches the garden, it can shine at its best," he said.

Zhang said the most important part of tending roses isn't watering, fertilizing, or even planting, but pruning. "If you want the plant to flourish, pruning is everything," he said.

The roses are also a bridge between the gardener and visitors. Zhang loves seeing people pause on the paths, lingering over colors or inhaling the fragrant bouquets. Feedback shapes his work: some people prefer traditional blooms, others are drawn to retro or artistic varieties. Each opinion, he said, informs the garden's evolution.

The Temple of Heaven, a short distance from Taoranting Park, boasts a vast Chinese rose garden, where blooms complement centuries-old architecture. Here, roses are not only cultivated for public enjoyment — they are entwined with ceremonial landscapes and imperial heritage.

"I come here almost every week," said Liu Mingfang, 67, who lives nearby.

"After the rain, the roses seem brighter, fresher. The light after the rain is perfect for photos," she said while taking photos of the flowers with her phone. "You can see every color in the petals. It feels alive."

When Liu was a girl, Chinese roses climbed over the courtyard walls of her home, she recalled. Seeing the roses today "feels like coming home", she said.

"Each color has its own charm. The pale pinks are delicate, the reds are bold — it lifts the spirit. Even the soft smell reminds me of my childhood."

Fu Yinghui, the team leader of the Chinese rose section of the historical site's flower center, has worked at the rose garden for nearly 40 years. The story of the Temple of Heaven's rose garden started in the mid-20th century, when city planners sought to bring color and fragrance to the capital's green spaces.

The park introduced Chinese roses from southern China in 1956. In 1960, the rose garden received a significant boost when Jiang Endian, a female horticulturist affectionately known as the "Lady of Roses", returned to China from overseas and was hired as a consultant.

With her expertise, the Temple of Heaven began building a proper rose garden, selecting superior varieties and laying the groundwork for what would become one of the country's premier public rose displays.

By 1963, the rose garden spanned approximately 13,000 square meters, making it the largest open-access rose garden in China at the time. In May of that year, the park welcomed its very first rose season, with the grounds filled with the colors and sweet smells of the carefully cultivated blooms.

By 1966, more than 3,000 Chinese rose varieties had been planted at the Temple of Heaven site.

In 1988, aged just 17, Fu, whose father was a historic building restorer at the Temple of Heaven, joined the rose team. "In 1987, the Chinese rose, along with chrysanthemums, was officially designated one of Beijing's city flowers," he recalled. "Roses were becoming incredibly popular — so many varieties, such vivid colors, and so versatile in how they could be cultivated and displayed. I happened to start my career at the perfect time."

With large-scale promotion and planting in the early 1990s, roses began appearing across the city.

"Before that, roses were considered high-end flowers — too costly for urban landscaping. Streets were mostly lined with pansies or scarlet sage. During the 1990 Asian Games, the streets began to bloom with bright, beautiful roses. Slowly, they became a part of people's everyday lives and even their homes," Fu said.