SINGAPORE, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- To welcome the Year of the Horse, eight magnificent steed lanterns have journeyed from China to Singapore's Gardens by the Bay. Yet, a visitor's first encounter is not with the horses, but with a winding, blossom-strewn path.
Created in China and inspired by an ancient classical ink painting of eight steeds in full gallop, the horses anchor Spring Blossoms: Gallop into Prosperity, a Chinese New Year floral exhibition that opened on Friday at the park. Running through March 1 inside the Flower Dome, a 1.2-hectare glass conservatory, the show brings together more than 10,000 plants, carefully arranged for the exhibition.
The Chinese New Year falls in February this year, and 2026 marks the Year of the Horse. In Chinese culture, the horse is often associated with drive, loyalty and resilience.
At the opening ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Singapore Cao Zhongming expressed hope that bilateral ties would continue to move forward with the same momentum as the galloping horses.
After dusk, the horses begin to glow. Warm light radiates from within, silk flowers layered across their backs. They were crafted by artisans from Zigong, a city in southwest China renowned for its lantern-making tradition. The Zigong Lantern Festival is recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in China.
To some visitors, the appeal is immediate. Anneke Adema, the Netherlands' ambassador to Singapore, said: "The horses radiate a lot of energy, and it makes us look forward to the new year."
Adema worked in Shanghai for four years earlier in her career. Walking through the exhibition, she said, it felt like a return. "I feel very much at home at this exhibition. I love the whole Chinese atmosphere -- I had the privilege to live in Shanghai for four years," she told Xinhua. She paused beside a small mandarin orange tree. "Our national color in the Netherlands is orange, so I love the orange here."
During the Chinese New Year, mandarin oranges carry their own symbolism: they are exchanged among family and friends as tokens of good fortune and prosperity.
The "Chinese atmosphere" Adema referred to is built from more than architectural motifs. Alongside bridges, rockeries, flowing water, and a hexagonal pavilion assembled with traditional mortise-and-tenon joints, the exhibition foregrounds plants long embedded in Chinese aesthetics.
Among them are the "Four Gentlemen" in Chinese culture -- the plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum. For centuries, these plants have appeared in paintings and poems, valued not only for their forms but for the moral qualities they were believed to embody: endurance, humility, integrity and restraint.
Some of them rarely bloom outdoors in tropical climates.
"In Singapore, we have no snow," said Felix Loh, CEO of Gardens by the Bay. "This is the only place in Singapore where you will see wintersweet in full bloom." These plants normally flower in cold winters.
To bloom at Gardens by the Bay, plants such as plum blossoms, wintersweet and alpine rhododendrons were prepared in China.
"These plants need a period of sustained cold to move from sprouting and leaf growth into flowering," said Zhang Yongwei, chairman of Shanghai Gardens Group, which co-organized the exhibition. "It's like simulating the transition from winter to spring, bringing them to that stage before transport."
Preparation began three to four months in advance. Some alpine rhododendrons were sent to colder facilities in Guizhou, a southwestern province of China, to spend several weeks in low temperatures.
When the plants arrived in Singapore, the handover was careful and deliberate. Grace Yang, assistant director of conservatory operations at Gardens by the Bay, said that the wintersweets arrived with their buds still tightly closed. "We adjust temperature gradually, manage watering and light, and let the plants wake up slowly," she said. "Bamboo also needs close attention -- you have to make sure it drinks enough water."
Singapore's Senior Minister of State for National Development Sun Xueling, who attended the opening, told Xinhua: "The collaboration with Shanghai Gardens Group allows Singaporean and Chinese horticulturalists to come together to display their skills and creativity. Such international partnerships allow us to create unique experiences at the Gardens for both our Singapore residents and visitors."
The exhibition brings together imported plants and those cultivated locally. More than 800 dahlias across 46 varieties are on display, all grown by Gardens by the Bay's researchers. Among the most remarked-upon are the dinnerplate dahlias, whose blooms can reach 25 cm in diameter, larger than a human face, said Yang.
Nearby, boat orchids are trained away from their usual upright growth. Here, they cascade downward in long curtains of flowers, an effect achieved through careful horticultural planning.
May Siu, a 72-year-old tourist from the United States, lingered beneath the orchids, noting that she grows them at home. The horses caught her attention too. "This is the Year of the Horse, right?" she asked, smiling. "I was born in the Year of the Horse. So that means it's going to be good luck for me?"
On the way out, many visitors stop at a circular drum standing 2.5 meters tall. Its surface is decorated with traditional Chinese motifs -- lotus flowers, peonies, and curling foliage arranged in repeating patterns. People typically lift the mallet wrapped in red cloth, wait as a companion raises a phone to find the right angle, then strike the drum with a single, deliberate beat.
In Chinese tradition, the sound of the drum signals renewal -- the turning of seasons, the arrival of spring, and the hope that the year ahead will move forward with momentum, like eight horses caught forever mid-gallop. ■
