Beijing’s Yuyuantan Sakura Park

Yuyuantan Park is located on Beijing’s west side. It was quite near our hotel. We were told that the park is filled with Sakura trees, so I got pretty excited that I’d be able to view blooming sakura again! The park hosts sakura trees that were gifts and planted by Japanese (to signal cooperation and better diplomatic ties some decades ago) and trees that were bred over the years. There’s a huge lake, too.

So much for blooming sakura. Because the recent weather in Beijing was colder than predicted, no tree had properly blossomed yet! Oh well, nice park anyway.

That’s me. It was crazy cold in the morning and I was freezing, so I didn’t mind looking whack.

When you’re cold, you warm your body up by jumping shamelessly!

That’s the CCTV Tower.

And then Isaw the miltary force jogging and marching in park! But by then I’ve seen a lot of them- at historical places, at the Tiananmen square and even on the roads. I also saw people walking, marching, clapping and doing all sorts of routine while they walked. A way to keep warm, I think? We found it funny though.

Sakura trees were labeled.

Since there were no sakura, we might as well take picture with rocks. Pretty rocks.

My brother thinks he’s cool like that.

He jumped!

I jumped! But, okay. My scarf spoiled the picture.

Picture of almost everyone in the tour. Missing in action were my parents, Asna and the tour guide. Asna had to go to the Beijing Hospital because she was wheezing since the night before.

Take two!

My brother thinks it’s cool to pretend falling off.

We spent half an hour in the park without exploring much of it. I guess if anybody wants to visit this park, it’s better to go at the end of April to May- or better yet, study the temperature of the city prior to traveling. Too cold a weather would mean no cherry blossom.

The park was very big and I can imagine how lovely it’d be if all the trees blossom at the same time. Worth visiting!