According to Yao Lei, a professor from the Shanghai Agricultural University and one of the planting program's instructors, scented plants including Thymus Vulgarize, Rosmarinus Officinalis, and Salvia Officinalis, grow well on the 2,000 hectares of farmland, the largest of the kind in the country.

The essences extracted from the plants are widely used in cosmetics, perfumes, dyes and food. Tests have shown the foreign scented plants have adapted well to Xinjiang. Their growth is almost the same as in the Mediterranean region because Xinjiang was closely linked to the Mediterranean region in an ancient geological era.

Xinjiang has also has the largest area planted in lavender in China and 80 percent of China's lavender grows there. The lavender planted in the area also comes from the Mediterranean.

Local authorities have decided to expand the area growing foreign scented plants to 66,667 hectares within five years and are determined to turn Xinjiang into the largest base for production and processing of scented plants in Asia.

China has rich resources of aromatic plants, yet the country has to import 60 percent of the essences needed for the manufacture of scented products such as cosmetics.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2002)