À propos de ce voyage
Chunyu traveled from Dali to Yili in his bee caravan. Settling down, he continues his beekeeping and his 'Bee World Experience' here. He starts a new life in a new place and welcomes you to visit him and talk with him.
About Chunyu coming to Xinjiang:
Chunyu's 'Caravan Plan' | Traveling with bees, looking for places where flowers bloom
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To join the bee experience in Yili and explore Yili, add Chunyu's WeChat:
Bee experience location: Near Yili Lanyin Homestay
In nature, there is a group of insects known for their diligence: bees. They have evolved and survived since the age of dinosaurs. They not only provide honey for people but also complete pollination while obtaining food from flowers in nature. Pollination is the most important part of plant reproduction. Plants and bees carry out the cycle of life in mutual benefit.
The first bee experience in Xinjiang started with a distant encounter. In April 2025, I received a message inquiring about the bee experience. There were two children, aged 3 and 5, asking if 3 years old was too young. My response was that it was a bit young; observing bees would be no problem, but the bee knowledge part might not be fully understood. The parents asked for the location and said they would arrange the time. A year later, on May 28, I received a message again. This time, it was direct—they saw I was in Yining and asked when they could book the bee experience. And thus, the unexpected bee experience began.
The family of the little ones started from Guangzhou and came to Yili, Xinjiang. After driving from Dali to Yili, I had already kept bees early on, but I had never written an introduction to the bee experience. The experience started in 2023, and over the past four years, more than a thousand people have participated. There is so much to write about that I never knew where to start. Since the experience had such an unexpected beginning, let me start with the first experience in Xinjiang. Every experience, I prepare some simple fruits for the children.
The bee experience begins with sharing bee knowledge with the children and their parents: the composition of a bee colony (queen bee, drones, worker bees) and their respective roles in survival and evolution. How do bees collect nectar from flowers, bring it back home, and turn it into honey? How do they store it so that honey can last for thousands of years without spoiling? How do they collect pollen? How do they process pollen? Why are there two different forms of female bees in the colony? The female bees that collect food live only about 50 days, while the female bee that gives birth every day can live 3 to 6 years. The male bees in the colony live a wandering life, eating but not working, and enjoy free food in various colonies. Why do bees still keep them? All these questions are answered during the experience.
After the knowledge sharing session, participants put on protective suits to observe the bees. Everyone can see firsthand what is happening in the bee colony at that moment. Combined with the knowledge explanations, you can see the queen bee, drones, and worker bees up close. Why are bees called genius architects? When you see the honeycomb, the answer is revealed through explanation. You can also see the pollen that bees bring back and the honey stored in the comb. If lucky, you might even see the waggle dance that bees use to communicate food sources.
Finally, you can observe the process of bees being born. Newly hatched bees do not sting. Stinging is a defense mechanism that has not degraded in evolution; bees only have one attack in their lifetime, and they die after stinging. With protective gear, the probability of being stung is extremely low. At the end, we take out a honeycomb from the hive, and you can taste the warm honey. The whole activity lasts about 2 hours.
Summary of the activity:
Colony composition and individual roles
Worker bees' foraging, honey-making, and dance
Observing the bee colony
Tasting honey
The first experience in 2023.
Photos and videos
