Small town grows thanks to flowers

As night falls, a stream of trucks arrives at the Dounan flower market. Workers use flashlights as they unload roses, lilies and carnations.

Sellers and buyers, some brandishing flashlights, some with hands buried in cloth bags, haggle on prices. Once a deal is reached, flowers are loaded onto a closed truck bound for the airport, and they end up in a shop somewhere in China.

This scene plays out every night of the week in the small town of Dounan in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, well-known in China for its important role in the flower trade. Between 500 and 800 tons of fresh flowers are sold in the town each day, 90 percent at this traditional market. Seventy percent of commercially sold flowers in China come from Yunnan, and many of those will have come from Kunming.