The Real Luoyang Behind Flourished Peony (国色芳华): Tang Dynasty's Eastern Capital, Longmen Grottoes, and the Peony Festival

Flourished Peony (国色芳华) is set in Luoyang (洛阳) — one of the most historically significant cities in China, and today one of its biggest cultural-tourism destinations. When Yang Zi's He Weifang returns to Luoyang to build her peony empire, she is returning to a city that was, in the Tang Dynasty, the second-largest metropolis in the world after only Chang'an. That city still exists. You can visit.

Here is the real Luoyang — the history, the legacy, the filming locations, and what to do if the drama made you want to see it.

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Luoyang as the Tang Dynasty's Eastern Capital

Luoyang sits on the central plains of China, in what is now Henan Province, on the Luo River. Its history as a capital city goes back to before the Tang — the Eastern Han and Wei dynasties both used Luoyang as their primary capital. But it was the Tang Dynasty that gave Luoyang its dual-capital status.

The Tang emperors held court primarily in Chang'an (modern Xi'an), but Luoyang served as the Eastern Capital (东都, Dōngdū) — a secondary imperial seat where emperors could relocate court functions seasonally or during crises. Empress Wu Zetian, uniquely among Tang rulers, formally made Luoyang her primary capital, renaming it Shendu (神都, "Divine Capital") during her reign (690–705).

At its Tang peak, Luoyang had:

• A population approaching 1 million
• Grand imperial workshops producing textiles, porcelain, and metalwork
• A canal connection to the Grand Canal system, bringing grain tribute from the south
• Foreign merchant quarters with Central Asian, Persian, Arab, and Korean communities
• Buddhist, Daoist, and Zoroastrian temples side by side
• A cosmopolitan cultural atmosphere rivaled only by Chang'an itself

When Flourished Peony places He Weifang's commercial empire in Luoyang, it is placing her in one of the most dynamic commercial cities in the Tang world — the kind of place where a widow's peony-cultivation business could genuinely scale into a regional enterprise.

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The Peony Capital

Luoyang's connection to peonies goes back at least to the early Tang, when the city developed horticultural gardens that specialized in peony cultivation. The Wu Zetian legend — Wu banishing the peony to Luoyang for refusing to bloom on command — mythologized an association that was probably already real. By the mid-Tang, Luoyang peonies were famous nationally.

The cultivation didn't stop after the Tang. Through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Luoyang continued to develop peony varieties. By the late imperial period, Luoyang horticulturalists had bred thousands of distinct peony cultivars. The scientific literature on Chinese peony horticulture today still treats Luoyang as one of two primary centers (the other being Heze in Shandong).

Modern Luoyang holds the world's largest peony festival, the Luoyang Peony Festival (洛阳牡丹花会), annually from April 15 to 25. National intangible cultural heritage status was granted in 2008; the festival was upgraded to national-level cultural event in 2010.

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What You Can Still Visit

Three major historical sites anchor Luoyang's tourism economy, plus a reconstructed heritage district and the peony gardens themselves.

1. Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟)

One of China's most important Buddhist sites and a UNESCO World Heritage property. Longmen comprises over 2,300 niches and 110,000 statues carved into limestone cliffs along the Yi River, south of Luoyang. Carving began in the Northern Wei (493 CE) and continued through the Tang.

Sixty percent of the surviving niches date from the Tang Dynasty — including the site's most famous figure, the 17-meter Vairocana Buddha. Tradition holds that this massive statue was modeled on Empress Wu Zetian's own face. Whether or not the attribution is historically true, the claim has shaped how Chinese visitors experience the grotto for twelve centuries.

If you want to understand Tang Buddhism, Tang art, and Tang imperial ambition in a single site, Longmen is the primary destination. Plan half a day minimum. Comfortable walking shoes are essential — the site is built along a mountainside with many stairs.

2. White Horse Temple (白马寺)

Traditionally regarded as the first Buddhist temple in China, founded in 68 CE during the Eastern Han Dynasty. The name comes from a legend that the first Buddhist texts arrived in China carried by a white horse.

Whether or not White Horse Temple was literally China's first Buddhist temple is historically debated, but it is certainly among the oldest still-active Buddhist sites in the country. The complex has been rebuilt and expanded many times over two thousand years, but the core continues to function as an operating temple.

For Flourished Peony viewers, White Horse Temple provides context for the religious register the drama references. Tang Buddhism was not background decoration. It was one of the primary institutional and cultural forces shaping Tang society. Temples held significant property, administered their own economies, and served as centers of learning.

3. Luoyi Ancient City (洛邑古城)

A reconstructed heritage district in central Luoyang. "Luoyi" is an archaic name for Luoyang, dating back to the Zhou Dynasty. The modern Luoyi Ancient City is a carefully-built recreation of what the district might have looked like in imperial times, with restored and rebuilt traditional architecture, canal systems, pedestrian streets, and evening illumination.

Luoyi Ancient City is not a strict historical site in the sense of Longmen. It is a cultural-tourism destination designed for contemporary visitors. But what makes it particularly relevant to Flourished Peony fans is that it has become the hanfu (traditional clothing) photography capital of China. Tourists rent Tang, Song, or Ming-style hanfu at one of hundreds of shops, get professionally styled and made up, and walk the streets in full period costume. Xiaohongshu and Douyin are full of Luoyi Ancient City hanfu check-ins.

After Flourished Peony aired, Luoyi Ancient City's hanfu tourism spiked significantly. The drama's Tang-period aesthetic — 1,500 custom costumes, museum-referenced props, 12,000 live peonies shipped from Luoyang for filming — drove visitors to recreate the look themselves. Peak spring 2025 weekends saw tens of thousands of hanfu-clad tourists in the district daily.

4. Peony Gardens

During festival season (April 15–25), Luoyang's peony gardens are the main event. The most prominent:

• National Peony Garden (国家牡丹园) — the largest peony garden in China, over 100 hectares, with 1,000+ varieties
• Luoyang Peony Park (洛阳牡丹公园) — central city park with extensive peony displays
• White Horse Temple Peony Garden — peonies planted on temple grounds
• Wangcheng Park (王城公园) — traditional garden layout featuring peony sections
• Sui and Tang City Relics Park (隋唐城遗址植物园) — peonies among the reconstructed ruins of Tang-era Luoyang

Outside festival season, the gardens are still open but without peak bloom. The festival weeks are crowded beyond ordinary measure; plan accordingly.

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The Drama's Filming Locations

Flourished Peony itself did not film primarily in Luoyang. The production filmed at three main locations:

Hengdian World Studios (横店影视城) — China's largest film and television production facility, in Zhejiang Province. Most of the drama's interior and urban exterior scenes were filmed at Hengdian's Tang-themed sets.

Leling Film & TV City (乐陵影视城) — a secondary location in Shandong Province, used for additional exterior shooting from April to July 2024.

Shengshi Tangcheng (盛世唐城) in Xiangyang — the largest Tang-style architectural complex in China, purpose-built as a filming location and now open to tourism. Many of the drama's grand architectural exteriors — imperial buildings, market streets, ceremonial spaces — were filmed here.

For the peony scenes specifically, the production shipped over 12,000 live peony plants from Luoyang to the filming locations, including ancient varieties with Tang-era lineage. An additional 2,500+ plants were sourced from Heze, the second major Chinese peony center. This is unusual — most period dramas use artificial flowers. Flourished Peony insisted on real plants, which is one reason the drama's visual bloom sequences carry weight that CGI or artificial-flower alternatives wouldn't.

Viewers who want to see the real Luoyang after watching the drama will find that Flourished Peony captures Luoyang's spirit through costume, props, and real peonies, but its architecture is shot at other locations that look Tang-correct. The emotional truth of Luoyang is in the drama; the physical city is elsewhere.

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Luoyang as a Drama-Tourism Destination

Flourished Peony was not the first C-drama to elevate Luoyang as a tourist site — The Longest Day in Chang'an (长安十二时辰, 2019), A Dream of Splendor (梦华录, 2022), and Empresses in the Palace all drew attention to Tang and Song cultural locations. But Flourished Peony's timing, with its January-February 2025 airing just before the April peony festival, made Luoyang the specific beneficiary.

Xiaohongshu and Douyin check-in culture now supports a full Flourished Peony itinerary through Luoyang:

1. Arrive in Luoyang (high-speed rail from Beijing, Shanghai, or Xi'an — 2 to 5 hours)
2. Rent hanfu at Luoyi Ancient City for professional photography
3. Visit Longmen Grottoes for the Wu Zetian/Vairocana Buddha connection
4. White Horse Temple for Tang Buddhist context
5. Major peony garden during festival bloom
6. Luoyi Ancient City again at night for illuminated architecture photography
7. Sample Luoyang Water Banquet (洛阳水席), the traditional local cuisine

A three-to-four-day Luoyang trip covers all of this. The city is set up for drama tourists — English signage is limited but manageable, hanfu rental shops often employ younger staff with some English, and Meituan / Dianping work for navigating restaurants and accommodations.

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Why This City, Why This Drama

The selection of Luoyang as Flourished Peony's setting wasn't arbitrary. Luoyang offers:

• Legitimate Tang Dynasty historical depth — the city was the Eastern Capital
• The peony symbolic tradition — the city's signature flower carries the exact meanings the drama wanted
• Wu Zetian association — the female-imperial-power backstory aligns with the drama's feminist framing
• An existing tourism infrastructure — the city was already set up to receive cultural tourists
• Clean commercial alignment with the April festival — airing in January positioned for spring tourism

The alignment is almost perfect. Yang Zi's He Weifang cultivating peonies in Luoyang is the drama saying to its audience: this is the real Chinese history of female commercial power, rooted in a real Chinese city, during a real Chinese cultural moment. Viewers who travel to Luoyang after watching are, in a way, completing the drama — moving from dramatic representation to lived experience in the same place the story invoked.

Flourished Peony (国色芳华) is streaming on Netflix, Viki, VIU, and WeTV internationally. Season 2, In the Name of Blossom, has been produced. Based on Yi Qianchong's novel. Directed by Ding Ziguang, starring Yang Zi and Li Xian.