A blossoming career

When all the lamps in the palaces were extinguished, casting a soft light over the lanes lined with peonies in bloom, Fan says he felt he was one of a few fortunate people who could see the Forbidden City showcasing its distinctive beauty. In appreciation of his efforts, Shan Jixiang-the then director of the Palace Museum-treated Fan to a royalstyle dinner.

One year after he earned recognition for holding large-scale peony events, Fan was entrusted by the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau to transport and display 2,600 pots of peony flowers on the Tian'anmen Square. This was a floral treat to guests attending the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2017.

Describing it as a challenging mission, Fan recalls he was notified to provide the peony flowers in late April near the end of their flowering cycles. Digging out thousands of roots from a plantation base in Shandong province, Fan hired more than 10 trucks to transport them to a greenhouse on the outskirts of Beijing. This gave two days to allow the plants to adjust to the new temperature, before reloading them to Tian'anmen Square.