There is a unique chic garden in the North section of the Haidian District. There are more than 600 kinds of medicinal plants in this 160 acres ground. There are more than one hundred thousand tourists every year. However, it is no more than a common garden, but the Medicinal Plant Garden for the Institute of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
The transformation from the scientific research base into an exquisite garden
Beijing Medicinal Botanic Garden is the Chinese herbal cultivation base of providing herbal for scientific research. There are many medicinal bases in Beijing, but this place is the only large-scaled garden. The person in charge of this garden told us that the initial purpose is to make money for science and technology research. However, with the increasing number of tourists, this garden has gradually become the TCM cultural tourism.
As early as in 1984, the Beijing Medicinal Botanic Garden has combined the Chinese herbal cultivation with the construction of garden and integrated the knowledge of TCM, TCM culture, leisure and health care and built the Chinese Herbal Culture Garden.
The Chinese medicine culture and tourism activities are mainly in growing areas, so it will affect the normal scientific and research.
If the medicinal plants are purely for service, then it will be divided according to the plant species. However, it will be difficult to attract tourists. But how to balance the difficulty of cultivating medicine and showing the beautiful scenery at the same time?
The medicinal Botanic Garden has employed technical personnel and it also made an exception of introducing structural engineers. The structural engineer Xie Changvie has involved in the design of Chinese medicinal botanic garden. “We made a special trip to Guangxi, Yunnan and Xinjiang province and we selected the Summer Palace, the Old Summer Palace and some royal gardens as our reference of designing garden. Xie Changbi said.
A Different Kind of TCM for Beijing’s Tourism Industry
As a professional research institution for medicine, the introduction of Chinese Medicinal Botanic Garden is special. All kinds of trees, shrubs and perennial root medicinal plants have hung signs with its name and medical values.
When you visit here, it is just like enter into a wild museum around the country. You can not only relieve the heat of summer hot, but also gain knowledge. The visitor Mr. Zhang said, “The names of many Chinese traditional herbals just can be seen in the prescription, it is the first time I saw the real herbal!”
Only superficial cultural introduction is not enough, therefore the garden also offers all kinds of exhibitions for guiding guests to keep health and learn good life habits. The exhibition model of “Medicine edible nutrition science”, “ traditional Chinese medicine beautify”, “The importance of keeping health” can be seen here and there.
The professional exhibition and introduction has activated the identification of Chinese medicine culture. The tourist Ms. Zhang has purposely bought the honeysuckles after realizing the honeysuckle can reduce internal heat. Some other visitors have bought medicine plant seedling not only for decorating the balcony, but also harvest medicinal tea and soup.
Address: No.151, Malianwa North Road, Haidian District
Telephone: 57833195
Tickets: 5 Yuan, 10 Yuan for greenhouse
Bus: take the362, 449, 509 , 518, 562 and stop at the Malianwa station.
