March 12th marks China's annually National Tree-planting Day. On this day, millions of Chinese, from all walks of life, will put their works at hands aside for a moment, take shovels and buckets as well as saplings, and trek out to green up their hometowns.
The festival landed on April 5 firstly, also the day of Qing Ming, one of 24 Solar Terms in Chinese Lunar Calendar. Then, in order to memorize Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), a great China revolution leader, the Nanjing National Government (1927-1949) passed away the festival on March 12th.
Nowadays, the meaning of tree-planting is changed. It has become a bit of tradition for Chinese, marking the beginning of children's schooling, one's enrollment of colleague in army service, or for a wedding or birthday celebration.
For those living in the big cities, Tree-planting Day is an excellent time for having an outing. They often take the planting as a nice short tour back to the nature with their family members.
Where to Enjoy Wonderful Spring Scenery in Beijing?
Zhongshan Park
In celebration the arrival of Spring, the flower show titled Joy and Happiness in the Year of Dog at Tanghuawu, Zhongshan Park is exhibiting more than 2,500 pots of conventional and festival flowers including plum blossoms, winter jasmine, flowering plum, flowering peach, midget crabapple, Japanese quince, yulan magnolia, cloves, azaleas and Chinese redbud.
Tanghuawu is a long-standing conservatory of flowers in Zhongshan Park. Its potted flowers cultivated with florescence control techniques have attracted many visitors. The flowering plum, winter jasmine, yulan magnolia and midget crabapple on display this time are greeting the visitors before their flowering phase. It is worth mentioning that after many years, Zhongshan Park once again puts Chinese redbud on the exhibition ahead of its flowering phase this year. Weigela also met the visitors before its normal flowering phase for the first time. These have brought extra splendor to the spring beauty.
Wofo Temple
Wofo Temple, situated in Beijing Botanical Garden, is the most famous place and the first choice for enjoying wintersweet flowers in Beijing. The two wintersweets early blossoming in wofo Temple are named “October Wintersweet”, which are from Yanling County, Henan Province, “the land of wintersweets”. The two wintersweets are big stars in Beijing, because they blossom at the earliest among all wintersweets every year in Beijing, which gives it the reputation of “Beijing’s first wintersweet”.
Address: at the intersection of Xiangshan Road and Xiangshan Road South, Haidian District, Beijing 北京市海淀区香山路与香山南路交叉口处
Traffic Guide: take No. 505 bus at Wuluju to Beijing Botanical Garden; then walk 1 kilometer to the destination
Liuyin Park
Liuyin Park is Beijing's one and only picturesque park brimming with idyllic atmosphere. It covers an area of 17.47 hectares (about 174,700 m2), where nearly half area is occupied by water. Renowned as a gorgeous village interspersed with ancient stone mills and rollers, it enjoys high popularity among the aged and children.
Opening hours: 6:00-21:00
Address: No. 8 Huangsi Street, Dongcheng District东城区黄寺大街8号
Transportation: take Bus No. 113 or 123 and get off at Waiguanxiejie Stop (外馆斜街) to the north gate of the park.
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace, with international influence on the garden art history of home and abroad, is artfully designed. Built by the last feudal dynasty in China, it is a large palatial garden inheriting the tradition of Chinese royal gardens. Furthermore, the style is somewhat resembles those gardens in Southern Yangtze River, so it features exquisite in the south, also bold and free-spirited in the north.
The Summer Palace has scored great achievements in architectural composition, plant furnishing and borrowed scenery. Emperor Qianlong, who has an eye for beautiful things, thinks highly of the Summer Palace. He once poetized that “Yan Mountain is made for expressing emotions, while Kunming Lake is a unique romantic place.”
Address: A No. 23, Gongmenqian Street, Haidian District, Beijing
