Spring in Bloom 盛开的鲜花

It is said that the most beautiful aspect of cherry blossom is its ephemerality. Seeing as there is such a small window of time to enjoy the flowers before they fall, Qingdao's Zhongshan Park draws in tens of thousands in one week in April. With that in mind, on the 17th of April I rushed to Zhongshan Park to see the blossoms for myself.

Outside of Japan, Qingdao can boast the largest concentration of cherry blossom trees, some 20,000. They were planted by the Japanese during their occupation from 1915 to 1922, and the trees have remained as perhaps the only welcome feature from that period. 

Capturing the moment

Zhongshan park has many other flower gardens apart from just Cherry blossoms

A view along Sakura Road

A bride and groom between wedding photos

Thousands of people took advantage of the spring bloom to visit Zhongshan park

Of course, where there are people, there is business opportunity. This was no ordinary walk in the park. Hundreds of stall holders had set up stands, peddling everything from portraits to bunny ears. Despite being in a park, don't breath in through your nose, because it won't be the scent of cherry blossoms that greets you. Stinky tofu is a hugely popular snack, and its unpleasant odour pervades the entire park. If that wasn't enough to disrupt your meditative stroll through the spring flowers, add the sound of thumping technopop, pounding away into your very soul.

Perhaps try visiting very early in the morning to avoid the crowds and music, because the scenery is stunning.


So, here's a really badly filmed video about spring blossoms. Cannot believe this is a song about how beautiful flowers are and they've filled the video with CGI. What.