Ever wonder where Kunming's flower vendors get their orchids and dahlias? They come from the aptly named nearby village of Juhua Cun (菊花村, or 'Chrysanthemum Village'), where the farmland is full of acres of houseplants. Unfortunately, they grow under silvery-white hothouse coverings, so you won't be treated to a view of fields of blooming flowers; but the village's wholesale flower market is worth visiting if you want to add a little life and color to your apartment.

The market is busiest in the early morning hours, when flowers are trucked out to Kunming and beyond, but it stays open to the public until around seven in the evening. Dozens of individual greenhouses line the muddy street. Inside, you'll find orchids, jasmine, bamboo, bonsai trees, and lots of other flowers and greenery. We even found good-sized rosemary and lavender plants.

Vases, pots and other gardening accessories can also be found - all for dirt cheap. We bought an orchid plant, ten stems of cut orchid and a rosemary bush for less than 30 yuan. At the back of the flower market is a large area where cut flowers are sold.

Getting There:

It takes about 90 minutes to get to Juhua Cun from downtown Kunming by bus. Take the number 5 from Xiaoximen or the number 11 from Jianshe Lu, to Dong Zhan, which is the last stop on both lines. From there, catch the number 12 bus for 2 yuan. Ju Hua Cun is the last stop on the 12. When you get off the bus, walk back in the direction that the bus came from for a few hundred meters. The entrance to the flower market will be on your left, marked by a banner hanging above the street.

This weekend comes during the brief period in which Kunming's cherry trees are in full bloom. Two of the best places to take in the beautiful and fragrant trees are Yunnan University and the Kunming Zoo on Yuantong Shan.

The trees blossom but several days each year, this year's blossoms are already beginning to fall from their branches. This weekend will be the last opportunity to enjoy the vivid colors and narcotic perfume put out by some of Kunming's most underappreciated residents. To preserve the fleeting beauty of these trees, we've added a Yunnan University photo gallery to our photo galleries.

If you have any photos of cherry blossoms, Yunnan University or anything else Kunming-related that you would like to share with GoKunming and its readers, please send them in via our contact form. (If you want to send a bunch, we'd be grateful if you zip them up first.)