Parks up their game to attract, delight crowds
During the Spring Festival holiday, parks across Beijing showcased their unique offerings, hosting 109 various cultural activities. These were themed around tours, natural science education, flower exhibitions, folk customs experiences and garden parties.
Data show that during the eightday holiday, the city received some 17.5 million visits, a year-on-year increase of 37.4 percent. Tourism revenue reached 28.65 billion yuan ($3.98 billion), up 40.6 percent yearon-year, surging 27.4 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
Beijing’s parks received a total of about 10.93 million visits, soaring 117.85 percent over the same period of 2023.
Experiencing Spring Festival in a park while appreciating ecological culture is an essential part of the holiday travel.
For example, Jingshan Park combines zodiac culture and Central Axis culture through its environmental arrangements, landscape features, large sculptures and exhibitions, allowing visitors to sample national trends while strolling through the park.
Meanwhile, Yuyuantan Park focuses on ecological science popularization such as “harmonious coexistence of man and nature” and “welcoming spring with winter birds”, with explanations, science exhibitions and quizzes.
The China Garden Museum launched 20 themed activities such as New Year’s painting and calligraphy as well as color paintactivities, ing techniques experience.
Others — including the Olympic Forest Park, the Old Summer Palace, Qinglong Lake Park and the Beijing World Park — organized Spring Festival garden parties combining folk markets, food stalls and amusements, bringing about a strong festive atmosphere.
To meet the cultural demands of tourists during the festival, the Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks created the dragon cartoon character Long Long to promote more than 20 series of cultural and creative products.
Municipal parks also carried out cultural performances, science popularization experiences, ice and snow enjoyment and Red memories-related projects.
During the Spring Festival holiday, the center set up 11 control centers to predict and guide pedestrian traffic flows in municipal parks. Relevant officials of the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau coordinated with other departments such as public security, urban management law enforcement and transportation to activate the holiday emergency mechanism for parks to respond to and guide the flow of visitors.
In recent years, Beijing has adhered to diversified greening efforts, with the total number of municipal parks reaching 1,090. In addition to historic gardens, urban parks and greenbelts scattered across urban and rural areas have become popular destinations for citizens to visit.
The Wenyu River Park, for example, is currently displaying thousands of intangible cultural heritage lanterns. Meanwhile, the grand Central Green Forest Park in the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center in the city’s Tongzhou district has hosted international festivals and ice and snow carnivals.