This holiday, night cherry blossoms and giraffes have become the new top trends. Dominican tourists visiting Shanghai parks are exclaiming that they want to "copy" the experience.

After a stretch of continuous rainy days, the Qingming holiday’s first day was bright and beautiful, “activating” residents and tourists’ enthusiasm for going out to enjoy spring outings and admire flowers.

Today (April 4), visitor numbers in multiple parks across Shanghai surpassed 400,000. Among them, 共青森林公园 had 60k visitors, 辰山植物园 had 46k, 世博文化公园 had 41k, Shanghai Zoo had 26k, Shanghai Botanical Garden had 23k, Shanghai Riverside Forest Park had 13k, and 古猗园 had 8,000 visitors.

As spring returns to the earth, ancient people combined offering sacrifices to ancestors and tomb-sweeping with getting close to nature, giving rise to the custom of suburban outings and spring outings. Among these, climbing to higher ground is an important form—people use it to admire the scenery of spring hills and wildlands and to feel the vibrant, teeming atmosphere.

Today, 11k residents and tourists climbed to the summit of the Twin Peaks at 世博文化公园—11k名市民游客登顶双子山东山—and, taking advantage of the good weather, stood by the railing to look into the distance. From left to right, they captured everything in a single sweep: the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the Shanghai Conservatory’s greenhouse gardens, the Central Lake, the Eleven-Arched Bridge, the Shenyuan, the “Four Treasures” of the Shanghai World Expo (“the former Russian Pavilion, the former Luxembourg Pavilion, the former Italian Pavilion, and the former French Pavilion”), as well as landmarks and scenery such as the Lupu Bridge.

Liu Ms. from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, said that in her hometown, people have the custom of climbing mountains to pray during the Qingming Festival period. This time when she came to Shanghai to travel, she specifically chose the “Shanghai’s First Mountain” from Xiaohongshu to climb. She said she was deeply impressed by the “meme-worthy” viewpoints on the mountaintop viewing platform: “There’s a sign you can use to check in and take photos. At first glance, you think it’s an elevation of 4,800 meters. But if you look closely, you’ll see there’s also a ‘cm’ label next to it, along with an amusing message: ‘See you at the summit—be careful with altitude sickness.’”

Twin Peaks’ summit scenery. Photo by Chen Xi Han

April 4, the large lawn at 辰山植物园. Photo provided by 辰山植物园

Because overall temperatures in March this year were lower than usual, the cherry blossoms—somei/Ichinoji Yoshino cherry (染井吉野樱), which had already stepped off the stage in previous years’ Qingming holiday—are instead currently in full bloom. What’s more, these cherry blossoms are famously “tough”—they quickly wither after blooming, choosing to leave at the most beautiful moment. As a result, the Ichinoji Yoshino cherry has become one of the focal points of attention among residents and tourists during this year’s Qingming holiday.

To guide residents and tourists to see the cherries at staggered times and get a better viewing experience, parks such as 辰山植物园 and 顾村公园 have launched “night cherry” sessions. Among them, 辰山植物园 has extended its closing time every day until 21:00 starting from March 28.

At 16:30 today, the 辰山植物园 “night cherry” session began ticket checks. By 19:00, nearly 2,000 residents and tourists had come specifically for the night cherries, and residents and tourists continued to enter the park.

A留学生麦冬妮 from Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, who is from Russia, said she has lived in the Songjiang university town for half a year and has been seeing the cherry blossom beauty on her mobile apps. “I didn’t think the cherry blossoms at night would be even prettier than what people post online! Looks like making an itinerary was the right call. At this time there are fewer people, the scenery is gorgeous, and it’s so distinctive.”

April 4, 辰山植物园 welcomed 46k visitors. Photo provided by 辰山植物园

Night cherries at 辰山植物园. Photo by Chen Xi Han

Night cherries at 辰山植物园.

Shanghai Zoo is one of the earliest zoos in China to introduce, raise, and breed giraffes. As of 2024, Shanghai Zoo had bred more than 70 giraffe calves. Today, many visitors came specifically for a little giraffe.

It was born on the evening of March 28. The next morning, its height was measured right away, and it was already 193 centimeters—yet when standing alongside its dad, mom, and aunt, it still looked like it stood out from the rest, with that “contrast-cuteness.” This made it quickly go viral across social platforms.

In recent years, careful nurturing and successful promotion have produced a group of animal “internet celebrities” at Shanghai Zoo, such as the brown bear nicknamed “Xijiao Duffy,” “Junjun,” and the top-tier Bengal tiger “Hongtang.”

When one group of animals broke out and went viral, residents and tourists’ expectations for related cultural and creative products soared. Shanghai Zoo responded to the enthusiasm by opening a cultural and creative shop. As of last year, Shanghai Zoo had opened four cultural and creative stores with three partner companies. The best-selling items were the “Junjun” plush toy and the “Hongtang” refrigerator sticker, with cumulative sales exceeding 10,000 units.

The little giraffe’s smile “instantly outsold” on social platforms.

It went for a walk with its mother on the second day after birth. Image source: Shanghai Zoo

“Loppy Bear” cultural and creative products—this nonchalant, intentionally “half-finished” feeling hit the hearts of many people. Image source: Shanghai Zoo

Rising popularity of park green spaces in Shanghai has helped integrate culture, business, tourism, and exhibitions/projects, achieving a win-win outcome for both residents and tourists and related industries and economies.

Today, on the second day of the “Shangzhi Impression” flagship store opening within Shanghai Botanical Garden, customers poured in—especially two embroidery refrigerator-sticker products that are limited to the season: 宝华玉兰 and “环球荷鼎” spring orchid, which are particularly popular.

Martin is a finance manager at a botanical garden in the Dominican Republic. Seeing the wide variety of plant cultural-and-creative merchandise, he was very pleasantly surprised: “I love visiting plant gardens in every place I go. I feel there are many practices here that are worth learning from. Can you bring this store to the botanical gardens in the Dominican Republic, too?”

After leaving his business card with the staff, Martin repeatedly confirmed: “You must send me an email! Looking forward to future cooperation!”

As global ecological deterioration worsens, the crisis facing plant survival is intensifying. In China, about 10% to 20% of plant species face threats. As a “plant ark” during the process of urbanization, Shanghai Botanical Garden has relocated and conserved more than 300 species of rare and endangered plants. But the public’s understanding still has a clear shortcoming—fewer than one-fourth of people can accurately name a single endangered plant.

“Not only should we learn to protect, but we must also learn to tell the story.” Zhang Shoufeng, deputy director of Shanghai Botanical Garden, said that the cultural-and-creative store builds a brand-new ecological science-communication platform, extending ecological science communication from on-site viewing to cultural products that can be touched, taken home, and shared, thereby broadening the coverage and influence of education on ecological civilization. In the future, the benefits generated by this cultural-and-creative store will also feed back into work such as scientific research and protection in the park, plant conservation, and public-interest science programs—turning the enjoyment of visiting into traffic and “retained users,” and helping to boost Shanghai’s consumption and economy.

Customers flood into the “Shangzhi Impression” flagship store located in Building 1 of the northern area of Shanghai Botanical Garden. Photo by Chen Xi Han

After leaving his business card with the staff, Martin repeatedly confirmed: “You must send me an email! Looking forward to future cooperation!” Photo by Chen Xi Han

Customers flood into the “Shangzhi Impression” flagship store located in Building 1 of the northern area of Shanghai Botanical Garden. Photo provided by Shanghai Botanical Garden