The peach, Prunus persica, is a tree of Chinese origin, and its spring blossom carries some of the densest symbolism in Chinese tradition. The peach is above all the fruit and flower of immortality and long life: the goddess Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, was said to grow in her garden the peaches of immortality, which ripened only once in thousands of years and conferred everlasting life on those permitted to eat them. Peach blossom, opening early in spring, is accordingly an emblem of longevity, renewal and the vigour of the young year.
Archaeological evidence bears out the plant's deep Chinese roots: peach stones recovered from Neolithic sites in the Yangtze River region, most notably at Kuahuqiao, have been dated to roughly eight thousand years ago, among the earliest evidence anywhere for the deliberate selection and cultivation of a fruit tree, a genuine scientific finding that sits comfortably alongside, rather than beneath, the tree's much later mythology of immortal peaches ripening once in millennia. Peach blossom viewing festivals, following the pattern of Japan's cherry blossom hanami, remain a popular seasonal event in parts of modern China, drawing crowds to orchards each spring in a living continuation of the blossom's old association with youth and the turn of the year.