Flower viewing draws holiday crowds across China during Qingming Festival

China's Qingming Festival holiday has turned flower viewing into a showcase of cultural heritage, drawing tourists and boosting local economies.

From references to "The Book of Songs", a treasured Confucian classic and China's oldest poetry collection, to longstanding flower festivals, organizers are promoting flower viewing as cultural tourism, weaving poetry and tradition into spring outings.

Hebi City in central China's Henan Province is drawing crowds with magnolias, tulips and crabapples, alongside 87 cherry blossom varieties. The blooms have become a major Qingming Festival attraction, prompting local authorities to pair tourism with cultural heritage.

As one of the birthplaces of The Book of Songs, Hebi has launched a campaign offering free entry to scenic spots for visitors who recite verses from the ancient classic. The initiative links flower viewing with a text long regarded as a cornerstone of Chinese literature.

In Binzhou, east China's Shandong Province, a park spanning 240 hectares, roughly the size of 330 football fields, is covered in blossoms, making it one of the largest spring displays in the region. The park uses smart drip irrigation to keep flowers hydrated and extend their peak season.

Originating in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), the Huazhao (Flower Deities) Festival in Xinzhou District of Wuhan boasts more than 800 years of history. Listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2011, it remains the largest folk celebration in eastern Hubei, drawing thousands of visitors each spring. A parade featuring 12 flower deities winds through the streets, anchoring the festival as both a cultural showcase and a tourism draw.

"The plum blossom represents noble character, the peach blossom radiant beauty. We hope more people will come to discover the Huazhao Festival," said Qinghuan, a performer portraying the Osmanthus Deity.

Outside the Shanxi Museum in Taiyuan City, apricot trees are in full bloom. Their pale pink petals flutter in the breeze, lining the museum's corridors and echoing the deep history within. Visitors pause to photograph the unique blend of ancient architecture and fleeting spring beauty.

During the Qingming Festival holiday, the Beijing Garden of World's Flowers turned into a "spring palette." A nearly 2,000-square-meter sea of flowers burst into color. Against this floral backdrop, traditional experiences such as archery, tea whisking and movable-type printing drew crowds seeking a holiday filled with blossoms and cultural charm.

The garden features over 40 varieties of alpine and deciduous rhododendrons in shades of purple, pink and white, layered like clouds of silk. Along the flower-lined paths, colorful benches and ribbons create picture-perfect spots. Visitors wander, stop to admire, or raise their phones to capture a moment of spring romance.

"We hope these vibrant, contrasting floral colors bring a little healing and joy to people's lives, a space to relax and find peace amid the spring bloom," said Shi Wenfang, director of the Beijing Garden of World's Flowers. Beyond flower viewing, the garden is hosting its annual Huazhao Festival during the holiday. Now in its fifth year, the event has attracted nearly 300,000 visitors in total. The festivities run through April 6.

Falling on April 5 this year, the Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a traditional Chinese festival for honoring the deceased and paying tributes to ancestors. The three-day holiday from Saturday to Monday also provides a short break for Chinese citizens to enjoy outdoor activities and sightseeing in pleasant springtime temperatures.

Compiled between the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period (1100 B.C. - 476 B.C.), "The Book of Songs" contains at least 305 poems and is recognized as a Confucian classic.

Flower viewing draws holiday crowds across China during Qingming Festival

Axis powers during World War II should offer sincere reflection and apology, a Greek mayor said after Greece successfully repatriated a rare collection of 262 World War II-era photographs.

Greek officials traveled to Belgium to negotiate with the seller and brought the photographs back to Greece, after they were put up for sale online by a Belgian collector, said the Greek Culture Ministry.

The images were taken by Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who served in Greece from 1943 to 1944, during World War II, and part of the collection documents the mass execution of Greek communists by Nazi troops in Kaisariani, east of Athens.

During World War II, German occupation in Greece met with fierce resistance. On May 1, 1944, German forces executed 200 Greeks at the Kaisariani firing range in retaliation for the killing of a German general by resistance fighters.

A memorial and a museum were set up after the war in Kaisariani to commemorate those who died in the mass execution.

"The photos really shocked us all because they were real documents from the day of the execution. We are shocked for many reasons. An important reason is that the 200 communists were singing with their heads held high before the execution in the photos, and they were not mourning because they were fighters," said Ilias Stamelos, mayor of Kaisariani.

The newly recovered photographs have drawn renewed attention to the historical trauma still felt in the community, as the images provide a direct visual record of the final moments of those executed.

In 1987, then German President Richard von Weizsaecker visited Greece and made a special stop in Kaisariani, reflecting on the profound suffering inflicted on the Greek people by Germany during World War II.

Ilias said that, like Germany, Japan, another Axis power during the war, should also be held accountable for the massive harm it caused to multiple countries and should offer sincere reflection and apology for its wartime aggression.

"And I think it's a common demand, because those responsible for the deaths in the World War II need to pay for what happened. It's known to all that back then it was Germany, Japan and Italy, the allies in this war, that each played different roles in the war, yet they do have common responsibilities," said the mayor.

Historic photos of Nazi mass execution of Greeks returned to Greece, mayor calls for historical accountability