Introduction to lavender base: The No. 65 Regiment Field of the Fourth Agricultural Division in the Ili Valley was named the "Hometown of Chinese Lavender" by the country. In 1964, the Ministry of Light Industry also established projects in Yili, Xinjiang, Yuxian, Henan, Kunming, Yunnan, and Xi'an, Shaanxi. Three varieties of lavender were introduced to the Beijing Botanical Garden, but the beautiful lavender has only taken root in the Ili River Valley. Today, Yili has become the only lavender planting area in China, with a planting area of more than 20,000 acres. It has become one of the four largest lavender producing areas in the world, alongside Provence in France, Hokkaido in Japan, and the Caucasus in Russia.
Every year in May and June, when in the lavender fields of the Ili River Valley, large swaths of blue-purple flowers sway in the wind like waves, the refreshing fragrance of flowers in the wind seems to tell the harvesters that it is another year. It’s lavender harvest season.