Chengdu opens its 6th cherry blossom festival

The Qingbaijiang District of Chengdu in Sichuan province held its 6th Cherry Blossom Tourism and Culture Festival as part of the 2015 Sichuan Flowers Eco-Tourism Festival at the Phoenix Lake Wetland Park on Mar 12.

The 2015 cherry blossom festival, themed "romance, fashion, joy and health",？had its area enlarged with the newly-built Han-and-Tang Dynasty Street included as part of the festival grounds. The organizing committee aimed to create a "cherry blossom town" on the grounds by making full use of the street. By doing so, visitors were able to see？a cherry blossom-themed food festival, Phoenix fair, stage, school of Chinese classics and reproduced ancient architectures.

In addition to seeing beautiful cherry blossom, visitors took part in various interactive programs including game-hunting, happy cycling and a cherry blossom road marathon. The themed marathon was one of the highlights of the cultural tourism festival and advocated a "healthy, sports-involved and environment-friendly" life. Participants of this jogging program completed a quarter of a marathon around the cherry blossom road. A festival organizer said that the unusual weather this year may delay the flowering time of the cherry blossom to late march. However, they will still arrange a range of different live activities for visitors when the festival starts.