Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden

1,125-hectare botanical garden in tropical southern Yunnan, on a Mekong tributary. The Chinese Academy of Sciences' largest research botanical garden.

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) is the Chinese Academy of Sciences' largest research botanical garden, established in 1959 in the Luosuo River peninsula near Menglun, in the tropical southern tip of Yunnan. The site was selected by the botanist Cai Xitao, who recognised the extraordinary biodiversity of the Xishuangbanna region — the last substantial lowland tropical rainforest in China, in a zone where south-Asian, southeast-Asian, and Chinese temperate-zone flora intersect. The garden now occupies 1,125 hectares and maintains over 13,000 plant species, making it one of the most species-rich botanical gardens in Asia.

The garden is organised into over 40 themed sections: a tropical rain forest section with original old-growth trees, a palm garden, a bamboo garden (one of the largest in the world), a tropical fruit collection, a medicinal-plant garden, and an aquatic plant section among others. The Luosuo River wraps around three sides of the peninsula; boat crossings and boardwalks connect sections across the water. Research facilities — laboratories, seed banks, a herbarium — occupy parts of the site but are separated from the visitor zone. The garden is still an active scientific institution, and visiting researchers are sometimes visible in the field sections.

For the general visitor, the dense tropical plant diversity — trees with buttress roots, strangler figs, pitcher plants, 100-year-old banyan specimens — is the primary draw. The garden is dramatically different in atmosphere from any botanical garden in northern or central China. Combine with the Wild Elephant Valley (about an hour north of Menglun) and Dai-minority villages near Jinghong for a coherent three-day Xishuangbanna itinerary. The region is most comfortable October through April; the rainy season from May to September brings humidity and leeches on forest paths.