At a wall corner some plum trees grow; alone against cold white blossoms blow. Aloof one knows they aren’t the snow; as faint through soft fragrances flow.
--Wang Anshi (960-1279)
Winter has muted all landscapes except the plum blossoms which bloom in the cold. Now it is time to watch the plum blossoms in Hangzhou. Today I am going to tell you the best places to watch the flowers.
Hangzhou Botanical Garden 杭州植物园
Address: No.1, Taoyuanling, West Lake District 西湖区桃源岭1号
At this time, when you stroll around Lingfeng Area inside the botanical garden, you will catch a faint fragrance. Where is it from? After seeking after it, it turns out to be from the first batch of wintersweet flowers quietly in bloom. And the yellow buds all over the branches are a herald of a fragrance feast!
Delicate and semi-transparent, like being glazed in amber or jade, these flowers look like small orange lamps depicted in Bing Xin's famous prose Little Orange Lamps, emitting bursts of fragrance.
Apart from Lingfeng, there are also many wintersweet bonsais in the Bonsai Garden, where people can photograph and enjoy the flowers closely. These flowers are mostly seen in Lingfeng Area, the Bonsai Garden and the Plant Classification Area, and some are scattered in other places.
Under normal circumstances, the flowering period can last from December to March of the following year. Hence it is a rare and excellent flowering tree in winter. And some time later, the main "selling point" of Lingfeng Area: the plum blossoms will be in full bloom as expected. We are all looking forward to it!
Xixi National Wetland Park 西溪国家湿地公园
Address: No.518 Tianmushan Road, West Lake District西湖区天目山路518号
As early as the beginning of December, the first plum blossom was in bud in Zhoujiacun Area of Xixi Wetland, and later bloomed alone in the cold. It belongs to the green calyx form, which is also known as Xixi plum.
Xixi plum blossoms are very famous. As early as Qing Dynasty, "Plum Blossoms in Xixi西溪探梅" became one of the 18 Scenes of West Lake. Now, there are in total more than 20,000 plum trees in Xixi Wetland, covering a total area of more than 0.2㎡, mostly concentrated in the Plum Bamboo Recreation Area and along the Plum Forest Road. Cultivars include cinnabar purple, pink double, green calyx, alboplena, blireiana, Nanjing red, and so on.
The plum trees in Xixi are mostly close to water. Therefore the best way to watch the flowers in Xixi is to follow the meandering stream. Take a small wooden boat, sip a cup of tea in the sound of sculling, listen to a song on the water, and carry a boat of fallen petals! How pleasant it is!
It is expected that in January in lunar calendar, the plum blossoms in Xixi will enter the best viewing period. Don't miss it out!
Chaoshan Mountain 超山
Address: Chaoshan Scenic Area, Tangxi Town, Yuhang District 余杭区塘栖镇超山风景区
About 20 kilometers away from downtown Hangzhou, Chaoshan Scenic Area is also a good place to see plum blossoms in winter. Chaoshan's plum blossoms are famous for being ancient, wide and strange, and are known as the Scented Snow Sea of Ten-Mile Plum Blossoms. There are more than 50,000 plum trees and more than 40 cultivars. They are extremely beautiful in full bloom!
This winter, the first thing that comes into our sight is the wintersweet flowers in full bloom in Daming Hall! The warm winter morning light sprinkles sparsely on the wall and the leaves of ginkgo trees are not all blown away by the north wind. And the wintersweet flowers in the garden have already bloomed. It is such a beautiful sight to behold.
The wintersweet flowers here are not as “leisurely and loose” as they are in other places. With the rich cultural heritage background, they are more poetic and romantic and are attracting a lot of people to revel in the beauty of the flowers. The quaint architecture, together with the scattered wintersweet flowers which emit bursts of fragrance, creates a pleasant setting for you to taste tea and chat with friends.
In addition, the annual Chaoshan Plum Blossom Festival has officially opened and will last from now till late March 2021. Let’s go to Chaoshan to watch the plum blossoms!
Dongwu Park 东吴公园
Address: No.128, Jiangbin West Avenue, Fuyang District 富阳区江滨西大道128号
The plum blossoms in Fuyang are mainly found in Dongwu Park and Jiangbin West Avenue, and there are some on Jiangbin South Avenue as well. Dongwu Park has more than 200 plum trees. After entering the best viewing period, the plum blossoms are very beautiful, against the backdrop of water and ancient buildings in the park.
Now the plum blossoms and wintersweet flowers are blooming one after another and a faint fragrance lingers on the branches. Visitors flock here to see the flowers blooming alone in the cold.
It is now the best viewing period of wintersweet flowers. The bright yellow color brings warmth to the earth, and the lingering fragrance is a herald of the coming spring.
Meifeng Islands 梅峰群岛
Address: Qiandao Lake Scenic Area, Chun’an County 淳安县千岛湖风景区
"If you don't go to Meifeng to have a panoramic view of the islands, you won't know the true Qiandao Lake." This is the unanimous praise of Chinese and foreign tourists who have visited Meifeng. There are more than 5,000 plum trees in Meifeng, and when they are in full bloom, Meifeng becomes a perfect place in Qiandao Lake to watch the flowers.
On the islands, there are many varieties of plum blossoms. On the observation deck, visitors can not only enjoy the beautiful scenery of islands scattered on blue water, but also enjoy the refreshing fragrance and beauty of the plum blossoms!
Tips
Chimonanthus praecox, also known as wintersweet or Japanese allspice, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Chimonanthus of the family Calycanthaceae, native to China. It is known as lamei (腊梅 or 蜡梅) in Chinese, which literally means “amber plum”. Its flowering time is close to the plum blossom, and the flower shape and fragrance are also similar to the latter, and the color of the flower resembles amber. That’s why it’s so named in Chinese. But it is not the plum blossom, which is classified in the Armeniaca section of the genus Prunus subgenus Prunus.
In terms of flower colors, the wintersweet flower is generally amber-colored, while the plum blossom has different colors, white, pink, red and green, etc. Different cultivars have their own colors.
In terms of flowering time, generally speaking, the wintersweet flower usually blooms around December in winter, while the plum blossom usually blooms after it. The average flowering time of the plum blossom in Hangzhou is around February and March.