Home / Life
Smarter residential landscaping means we can savor the spring season without joining the crowds at formal public gardens, Xu Lin discovers.
While visitors are flocking to parks and scenic spots to enjoy the springtime in full blossom, many people are enjoying easy access to beautiful flowers in their residential areas.
"There are colorful blooming flowers in the places where I live and work, and even along the road. Sometimes, it's not necessary to go all the way to parks for beautiful flowers," says Ma Limei, 37, an editor in Beijing.
Ma visited the Beijing Botanical Garden and Yuyuantan Park recently with her family and colleagues.
However, like others, she found her enjoyment of flowers was spoiled a bit by the overflow of tourists.
The residential area where she lives has such flowers as yulan magnolias, which have been cultivated in Chinese Buddhist temple gardens since AD 600, as well as apricot and cherry blossoms.
She finds it convenient and pleasant to enjoy flowers when she leaves home every day and again when she returns.
"I love the spring in Beijing very much because there are a variety of flowers. Sometimes I'm feeling blue, but I become happy as soon as I see these gorgeous flowers," she says.
Ma likes to take photos of flowers and draw them. She notes that ancient people created poems about, and paintings of, flowers. But people can take photos instead to preserve the beauty they have seen.
Other Beijing residents enjoy blooming flowers in their neighborhoods.
"It's so great that I can admire the beautiful flowers as soon as I walk out of the elevator. Compared with parks, residential communities have fewer visitors and the atmosphere is more relaxed," says Shi Peifang, 62, a retired accountant.
She walks with her 3-year-old grandson every day in the alleys lined with flowers and trees near her home.
An Jin, 27, who works for an international company in Beijing, says: "You can sense the arrival of spring everywhere. Enjoying flowers in the place where you live is to find the beauty around you, and relax a bit and indulge in a moment of peace when you have time." Her mom loves to walk around the community to take photos of flowers.
Although An's home is only five minutes' walk from Yuyuantan, she never visits the park during the cherry-blossom season because it's crowded with sightseers and vendors.
During the three-day Tomb Sweeping Day holiday from April 4 to 6, more than 1.9 million visits were made to the 11 municipal parks in the capital - 100,000 more than officials expected, according to the Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks.
There were 222,000 visitors in these parks at 2 pm on April 5 - the highest number ever recorded during the holiday.
The administration notes that early spring flowers, including cherry, apricot and peach blossoms, came into full blossom during the holiday, and the best time to enjoy late cherry and cloves has just started. Tulips and peonies will bloom soon.
According to 34-year-old Beijing botanist Shi Jun, it's good to see that the philosophy of building gardens and parks has evolved greatly in more than one decade.
Initially, reforestation was only about planting poplars, but now green-space design focuses more on growing trees of different kinds and heights.
"The benefit is that we can see various flowers and trees in residential communities and public areas. People think it's important that their living environments are close to what it is like in nature," Shi says.
"It's our instinct to enjoy beautiful things, but the aesthetic preferences for different flowers change with time. For example, peonies were very popular in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), but nowadays many people favor lilies, (hybrid) roses and China roses."
He says there is more variety than ever before. Cultivated species from all over the world have been introduced to China, such as tulips and hyacinths.
"If you want to know more about flowers, it's best to invite professionals who study botany, especially if you're taking kids. They will tell you how to identify different flowers, their characteristics and species, and tell interesting stories."
Contact the writer at xulin@chinadaily.com.cn
