Heze city in East China's Shandong province, is known as the Peony Capital of China. [Photo by Xu Xiangdong/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Heze city in East China's Shandong province, is known as the Peony Capital of China, with over 1,500 years of experience in peony cultivation.

Beautiful, dignified and graceful, the peony is utilized as the city's business card. With an impressive array of nine colors, 10 shapes, and a staggering 1,280 varieties, Heze is renowned as the world's largest area for peony production, scientific research and exportation.

As a symbol of auspiciousness, wealth, peace and friendship, the peony is very popular in many countries. Heze peony has gone viral throughout the country and even overseas, becoming an ambassador for the city's international exchanges.

As early as in the Tang Dynasty (618 to 906 AD), peonies were brought to Japan by Japanese envoys to become messengers of cultural exchanges. Nowadays, Chinese peony gardens have been built in Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Russia and other countries.

From 1950 to 1960, the Heze peony began to be exported to other countries. As a messenger of friendship, Heze peonies were exported to the former Soviet Union, Democratic Republic of Korea, Albania and other countries in the 1970s. Since China started its reform and opening-up, Japan, Thailand, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Germany and other countries have started to cultivate Heze peonies and build peony gardens.