China Focus: Cultural activities boosts green garden visit in China during holidays

Students paint from life at Hengdaohezi Town in Hailin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

BEIJING, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- As the eight-day-long Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays bring a new traveling craze, more and more Chinese tourists choose to embrace ecotourism via garden visits.

Adorned with nearly 300 different species of chrysanthemums and hundreds of other colorful flowers, the National Botanical Garden of China in Beijing draws numerous photography enthusiasts, including Zhang Guangbin, a 70-year-old frequenter of the garden.

"I visit the garden very often and feel like appreciating the chrysanthemum exhibition during the holidays," said Zhang.

Throughout the holidays, Beijing's parks offer over 110 special cultural activities, including folk tradition shows, flower exhibitions, popular science education, and festive performances, enriching the cultural lives of the city's residents and tourists.

Many young people now find visiting parks a fashionable way to spend their holidays. Yue Jingran, a university student from southeast China's Fujian Province, chose Beihai Park for an excursion with friends.

With a moon-shaped fan in hand, Yue was dressed in colorful traditional clothing, which forms a delightful contrast with the white pagoda in the distance.

"We came all the way to Beihai Park. It offers a rich cultural experience due to its historical significance and beautiful garden landscape," said Yue, who noted that traditional Chinese drama by famous masters from the Jingju Theater in Beijing was also in performance here.

In the Summer Palace, cultural activities related to osmanthus flowers attract a crowd of visitors. Under the guidance of an artist, 11-year-old Pan Jiayue dips her brush in pigment and paints the osmanthus flowers on paper.

"I have been learning Chinese painting for half a year. While painting amid the fragrance of osmanthus, it feels like the pigment itself has diffused the fragrant scent," said Pan.

Combined with delightful activities, traditional gardens and urban parks in Beijing have gained vitality once again and provide citizens with an eco-friendly travel option with less fatigue.

In the Tongzhou District of Beijing, the music festival in the Grand Canal Forest Park and a fashion show featuring traditional Chinese clothing in the Xihaizi Park have attracted not only the residents nearby but also tourists from all over the country.

Beijing's ecological protection has witnessed prominent achievements in recent years. By the end of 2022, Beijing's urban green coverage reached 49.3 percent, with an average of 16.63 square meters of green space per capita, according to Peng Qiang, director of park management of the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau.

Various urban forests, pocket parks, small green spaces, and suburban parks continue to grow in the limited urban space. The coverage of green spaces within a 500-meter radius of residential areas also reached 88 percent as of the end of last year.

More and more citizens and tourists are choosing to relax and play in classical gardens and urban forests. A diverse range of cultural activities is also offered during the holidays, further boosting the popularity of these destinations, said Peng.

During the first three days of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays that started last Friday, all types of parks in Beijing received a total of 4.25 million visitors, an increase of nearly 40 percent compared to the same period last year.

On the life-sharing platform Xiaohongshu, hundreds of users share their park visits in Beijing with detailed notes, including photography tips, effectively promoting the holiday cultural activities in the parks.

To satisfy the need for real-time sharing, communication network coverage in Beijing's forest areas has also been enhanced since this year. The Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau has collaborated with other bureaus, such as the Beijing Communications Administration, to establish communication base stations in 48 forest areas, forest parks, and surrounding areas throughout the city.

As of the end of September, all 216 planned communication base stations have been completed and put into use, raising the city's communication network coverage in forest areas and parks to over 90 percent.

The construction of communication base stations has enhanced tourists' park experiences while also facilitating the deployment of intelligent sensing devices and systems in forested areas, supporting activities such as forest protection, patrolling, and emergency response, according to Hu Yong, director of big data center under the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau.