Lotus position

The Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan Garden, celebrates the 14th Lotus Festival, until September. Visitors can take boats among some 40,000 blossoming lotus flowers .

The most precious lotuses are two rare kinds of water lilies. One, called Mrs Perry Slocum, is imported from the United States and has dazzling green petals; and another is from Japan, with yellow blossoms that look like flying skirts.

A dozen "royal water platters" are another highlight. Imported from tropical countries, the lily's big green leaves are the size of round tables. The oldest lotuses come from Baoding, Hebei province, and the pond lily from Pulandian, Liaoning province, whose seeds were buried deep in the Earth for hundreds of years before being found and cultured this year.