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March 27, 2010

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Three locations to see the best collections of sakura

MINHANG Sports Park

Minhang Sports Park is an important part of Shanghai's "green belt" as the first park designated for sport in the city. Its construction was completed in 2004 and it was formally opened to the public on January 18 of the same year. It's located next to Minhang Gymnasium on Xinzhen Road and, including sporting facilities, occupies an area of over 84 hectares. The famous Dino Beach is also one of its neighbors.

It's typical of the style of southern cities in China, with a lake, rivers, fountains, green paths, hills with forests and ecological gardens. These elements combine into a spring symphony which can be enjoyed in many ways. These include walking around the greens, boating on the lake or taking a picnic on the field. And if you're interested in physical exercise, the gymnasium is the place to be where various sports activities are available, including football, basketball, tennis, swimming and badminton.

But in spring, people visit mostly for the natural fragrances, and sakura is no doubt one of the leading attractions. In recent days, blooming sakura with white petals can be seen all around Minhang Sports Park. Most of the flowers are so called Prunus subhirtella, which is more commonly known as the "early sakura."

Their blooming usually comes in late March and lasts for one or two weeks. It's actually not very common to find early sakura in Shanghai, which makes it more special to see a grand planting here.

The Kilometer Flower Path is another must to visit inside the park. It's a large green area of 36,356 square meters, decorated with various flowers and trees of over 100 varieties and most of them are spring flowers whose blooming times are close to each other. Visit during late March and you'll be enthused by the strong visual impact of the spring colors.



Address: 456 Xinzhen Rd

Traffic: Bus No. 763, 753, Qibao No. 1

Admission: Free



Li'an Park

It's located between Xiuwen Road and Li'an Road, west of the Outer Ring Road. It's divided into several sections and the flower area is the most beautiful at this time of the season. Over 120 varieties of flowers, including over 500 sakura plants of different style, make the park a fabulous collection of spring themes.

Among all the spring buds, sakura plays a leading role with a special walkway devoted to the plant inside the park. Walk along the path and you'll see different sakura in different stages of their blooming cycle -- the first you'll see is the white early sakura, while the pink variety is in the middle. The last is the late sakura with red petals. There are sakura forests as well as single plants, making the park a colorful sakura world.



Address: 188 Xiuwen Rd, Xingzhuang Town

Admission: Free



Minhang Ecological Park

Located at 3333 Dongchuan Road, it occupies an area of about 40 hectares with three different sections -- the western garden in the south, the wetland garden in the middle and agricultural garden in the north.

A sakura garden of about 2,800 square meters in the east of the wetland has 108 sakura plants. The garden is sponsored by many Japanese enterprises and individuals in Shanghai, making it a typical Japanese garden with square pavilions, stone lanterns and wooden shacks.



Address: 3333 Dongchuan Rd

Traffic: Metro Line 5, Bus Maqiao No. 1, Jiangchuan No. 1

Admission: Free


 

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