BEIJING: Flower-viewing tourism has taken off this spring as bounteous blooms bend branches in public parks across China.
“I know it sounds like an exaggeration, but it felt like Beihai Park — a well-preserved royal park in Beijing — had tens of millions of people viewing peach flowers on Saturday,” said Li Nan, a 28-year-old from Beijing who visited the park with his girlfriend over the weekend. “I felt like I was raised from the ground by the crowd.
“Spring is all about flowers and outings. It’s a good time to take pictures for people you love. I’ve seen many girls wearing Chinese hanfu pose for pictures with the peach flowers at the park. That’s awesome.”
Travel agencies said bookings for flower-viewing tours surged late this month now that flowers like cherry blossoms, tulips and rape are blooming and temperatures are beginning to rise.
According to the Qunar travel portal, flower viewing, spring outings and mountain climbing are buzzwords among its users. It said bookings for short-distance tours are up 30 percent from last month, and bookings for flower viewing trips have jumped fourfold year-on-year.
“Cherry blossoms have a shorter flowering season, with their blooming time lasting about 10 days, so it’s always the first and top choice for flower-viewing travelers,” said Tuniu, another travel portal, adding that Nanjing in Jiangsu province and Wuhan in Hubei province are popular destinations. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
