COP15 sites in Yunnan frequented by visitors

The Fuligong Greenhouse in central Yunnan’s Kunming city

During the just-concluded summer vacation, the Fuligong Greenhouse and the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species in central Yunnan’s Kunming city were frequented by visitors home and abroad.

The two facilities are both related to the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) that took place in Kunming and Montreal years ago, allowing the public to know about Yunnan’s efforts in ecological conservation.

The Fuligong Greenhouse is frequented by visitors.

The Fuligong Greenhouse is frequented by visitors.

Fuligong is the earliest greenhouse ever recorded in the world. During the reign of emperor Wu in the Western Han Dynasty over 2,000 years ago, a Fuligong palace was built to grow fruits, exotic flowers and trees from the south of China.

In 1986, famous botanist Wu Zhengyi named a newly-built greenhouse in the CAS Kunming Institute of Botany "Fuligong Greenhouse." To welcome COP15, the Fuligong was rebuilt to demonstrate the biodiversity in Yunnan and China at large. Now is a permanent site to showcase the COP15 legacy.

The Germplasm Bank of Wild Species in central Yunnan’s Kunming city is frequented by visitors.

The Germplasm Bank of Wild Species in central Yunnan’s Kunming city is frequented by visitors.

China is one of the richest countries in bio-diversity worldwide. As one of its actions to protect bio-diversity, the country established the first national seed bank in 2009, and that is the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species in Kunming, Yunnan province.

Thanks to ten plus years of efforts, the seed bank now collects germplasm resources for over 10,000 species, ranking second in the world. Since the COP15 event in Kunming in 2021, it has emerged as a popular site to know about bio-diversity protection.

Sources: Yunnan Daily; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue