Cherry blossoms are synonymous with springtime in China, but a Tibetan prefecture in the country's southwest offers an equally delightful scenery, except with peach blossoms.
The Nyingchi peach blossom festival opened on Saturday in Nyingchi Prefecture in Tibet Autonomous Region, with a sea of pink welcoming travelers from near and far.
The event was first held in 2002 and has since been an annual fixture tapping into the area's natural beauty to spur local tourism.
The festival promises a full package of al-fresco fun with cultural experiences. It features tours around wild peach groves, as well as ethnic performances and fireworks displays.
Peach blossoms in Gala village, March 16, 2021. /CFP
Peach blossoms in Gala village, March 16, 2021. /CFP
Peach blossoms in Nyingchi Prefecture, March 24, 2021. /CFP
Peach blossoms in Gala village of Nyingchi, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, March 29, 2018. /CFP
In the lead-up to the celebrations, one village in the prefecture, Gala, was receiving up to 10,000 tourists on a daily basis, a tourism official told Xinhua News Agency. More influx is excepted until mid-April as the blossom season reaches full bloom.
Nyingchi is the lowest area in Tibet with an average altitude of 3,100 meters.
The advantageous geography has endowed the area with abundant natural resources that other Tibetan destinations like Lhasa, Shigatse and Shannan don't have due to their high elevation. Nyingchi has more wild peach trees than anywhere else in China. The trees are bigger and taller than those holding other cultivars, and the flowers are whitish pink.
A shorter distance to sea level also means that visitors looking to experience what Tibet has to offer are at a lower risk of altitude sickness.
Officials are hopeful that with the COVID-19 situation in China under control, this year's edition would be more crowded than the 2020 version.
Affected by the pandemic, the city saw the number of tourists in the first half of 2020 down about 70 percent. According to Xinhua, the total tourism revenue of Nyingchi was around 4 billion yuan ($612 million) last year. This year, the city expects the tourism revenue to double.
