In bloom: The best flower festivals around Beijing
Photo: Beijing International Flower Port/WeChat
Find these short-lived blooms at these flower-powered locations around Beijing
Go beyond the occasional spring blossom sightings and head out for the city's most gorgeous foliage. These top flower festivals are where you'll find thousands upon thousands of blossoms in bloom. Make sure your phones, cameras and power banks are fully charged; you're going to be taking a lot of photos.
Photo: Zhongshan Park/WeChat
There's plenty to see on the southwest side of Zhongshan Park, where more than 60 kinds of mountain peach blossoms flower majestically for Zhongshan Park's 8th Flower Culture Festival. Snap away as you take in the view of the gorgeous hillside blooms amid a backdrop of sturdy cypress trees and (hopefully) lovely blue skies. According to Zhongshan Park's official WeChat account, there's a high probability that 90 percent of these flowers are going to be blooming by the end of March.
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Photo: Beijing Botanical Gardens/WeChat
The Beijing Botanical Garden's 31st Peach Blossom Festival and the 16th World Famous Flower Exhibition are already attracting crowds with wondrous blooms galore. Jump into what could be a scene straight out of traditional Chinese painting and head to the South Lake, where breathtaking views of the lake and the foliage abound. With more than a million flowers grouped by theme in the park, it's easy to get lost. But there's no better place to spend a spring day wandering through blooms than the Botanical Gardens. Head there from now until about May 1 for the best of the blooms.
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The 10th International Tulip Festival kicks off today, April 5, and will last until May 6. This ocean of tulips comprises of 130 varieties – though props to you if you can tell the difference, apart from the colours. More than just pretty flowers, the park also spices things up this spring with floral pieces and sculpted landscapes. No, you're not in Holland.
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Photo: Yuyuantan/WeChat
Yuyuantan Park's 31st Cherry Blossom Culture Festival is now in full swing, along with the park's first-ever Lupine Festival, making sure that even when the cherry blossom season is over, there are still colourful Lupine plants to please the eyes. This year, the park has also teamed up with Huawei and Beijing Mobile, giving park visitors access to the 5G network for instant selfie uploads. What more could you want?
However, if the thought of all the selfie snappers has you feeling a bit off, head there early in the morning and avoid going during the weekends and holidays – your first warning of hordes of sightseers are the tourist buses lined up outside the park.
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Photo: Olympic Park/WeChat
Fancy a jog under spring foliage? Head over to Asia's largest 'urban greening landscape' where you can exercise under the blooms. To the south of the park are flowers amid large, natural landscapes while the north has blooms sprouting along picturesque streams and a small forest. More than 30 varieties of blooms, including mountain peach, magnolias and forsythias, await.
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For even more things to do and see in Beijing this spring, hit 'Read more' below.
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