At dawn, the southern stretch of Gaoying Village along the new Huoma Road in Tongzhou District is alive with traffic. By the roadside, a vast golden sea of sunflowers sways gently in the morning breeze, creating a 500-meter-long “Golden Avenue.” Covering an area of 6,000 square meters, this floral spectacle was realized by the Tongzhou Highway Maintenance Department. Through meticulous renovation—and while fully ensuring road safety—the department has transformed what was once an abandoned plot of land into today’s vibrant scenic corridor.

“In the past, our focus was on traditional ‘maintenance,’ which primarily meant repairing potholes and handling cracks as part of basic upkeep. Today, however, we emphasize ‘managing the roadway environment,’ with the aim of making the highway itself a flowing landscape,” explained Min Shuang, Deputy Section Chief of the Maintenance Management Division of the Tongzhou Highway Sub-Bureau of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, while standing before the flourishing sunflower field.

Why sunflowers? Yang Zhongqiu, Head of the Niubutun Special Maintenance Section of the First Highway Division of Beijing Construction Engineering Maintenance Group, revealed the reasoning behind the choice: “Sunflowers not only boast high germination and survival rates, enabling them to form a spectacular contiguous landscape, but their sunward growth also carries an auspicious symbolic meaning.”