The history of orchid planting in Shawan Town, Panyu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, can be traced back to the era of the Qing Dynasty. In the history, ‘Yu Lan’ also was called planting orchid, in the earlier time, the garden named ‘Liu Chun Yuan’ belonging to Mr. He Houde who came from the  countryside in Qing Dynasty, which treating planting orchid and admiring orchid as the best hobby, like many clerisies in Shawan Town did at that time. In Qing Dynasty the Tongzhi regime period, Mr. He Ji loved orchid very much, was good at painting, and named himself as Orchid Addict (Lan Chi in Chinese). All of his works were signed by ‘Lan Chi’. Many countrymen in Shawan love orchid and also admire it to cultivate their minds and get elegant delight, as well as has kept it as a custom for a long time. Until now Shawan orchid planting has already gotten a qualitative leap.

The custom of cultivating orchids has been passed down from generation to generation, until now the planting for orchids has been in a qualitative leap.

Set up orchid association to create the orchid industry base.

In 1990,Shawan Town Orchid Association was built with the pattern of leading farmers digging and propagating old-line Shawan Chinese cymbidium. After association was built, organization often held many kinds of cultivation technics lecture, training class and exchange meeting, in order to improve farmers’ cultivation technics and the technology content of orchid planting, to acquire knowledge of cultivation technics, purification, rejuvenation, fertilization and insect disease prevention. Shawan Town orchid already has been one of four big local brands (including Canton music, Shawan Piaose, Shakeng lion dance, Shawan orchid). Shawan people planted orchid with hearts, although in the earlier time the orchid market was in stagnancy, the sales of Shawan orchids still keeping going well with its high quality and production, which showed the best quality could gain a foothold in the markets.