Gucun Park

Gucun Park is located north of the S20 Outer Ring Expressway in Baoshan District, and is a relatively large park in the northern suburbs of Shanghai. With lush flowers and trees, it is a very popular outing destination for local residents. There are not too many visitors on regular days, and on fine days you can often see families with children coming for picnics and sunbathing. The park has a cherry blossom planting area of over 1400 mu, with 110 cherry blossom varieties and more than 14000 cherry blossom trees, which bloom successively from March to April every year. After years of continuous development, the cherry blossom landscape of the park has gradually formed the feature of changing views with every step: the east-west Cherry Blossom Avenue connects cherry blossom viewing spots including Plum & Cherry Forest, Cherry Blossom Forest, Cherry Blossom Garden, Weeping Cherry Forest, Fu Cherry Forest, Cherry Blossom Square, Friendship Forest, Spring Welcoming Forest, Early Cherry Forest, and Cherry Blossom Variety Garden. There are also new landscapes rich in traditional Chinese cultural characteristics such as Songyue Forest, Lanlan Square and Sunshine Forest. Early and mid-season cherry blossom varieties such as Feihan Cherry and Higan Cherry bloom first in spring, with their full bloom period looking like rosy clouds. Right after the full bloom of cold cherry blossoms, early cherry varieties enter their full bloom seamlessly. As cold cherry blossoms arrive, all cherry blossom varieties will bloom one after another. Early cherry varieties such as Kawazu Cherry, Dayu Cherry and Taiwan Cherry will also reach full bloom from late February to early March. Hundreds of Sunshine Cherry trees have entered the initial flowering stage, swaying gracefully in the Sunshine Forest. The mid-season Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms, nourished by spring rain, have already sprouted buds and are waiting for the right time, with full bloom expected in mid-to-late March. The lotus flowers in Gucun Park are naturally planted in multiple water areas of the park, covering an area of more than 300 mu, with a total of 28 varieties including Qinglian Honglian, Friendship Peony Lotus, Fujian Honglian, Baijian Lotus, and Jianwu. They generally start to bloom in mid-June, enter the initial bloom at the end of June as the temperature rises, and reach full bloom from mid-to-late July. The lotus flowering period lasts for more than one month, and some varieties can bloom until September. Enjoying osmanthus flowers in golden autumn is a traditional tourism activity of Gucun Park's four-season flower viewing. When autumn comes, the whole park is filled with the fragrance of osmanthus, and various colorful leaf trees compete to show their gorgeous colors, attracting tourists from all sides to come and appreciate the fragrance and scenery. At present, more than 10000 osmanthus trees of different sizes and shapes are planted in the open area of the park, the main varieties are golden osmanthus, silver osmanthus, red osmanthus, and four-season osmanthus, which are evenly scattered in each area of the park. The rose theme garden covers a total area of about 534 mu, displaying 128 varieties. The rose flowering period is from the end of April to the end of December, with the full bloom period in May and October. The plum blossoms in Gucun Park are mainly distributed in the area from Plum & Cherry Forest to Mengxiong Bridge, near Xiangjia Bridge, the Oriental Bird World, and near the Cherry Blossom Barbecue Garden. From late January to February every year, red plum blossoms stand proudly on the branches with faint fragrance, with pink petals paired with goose-yellow stamens. The park covers a large area. In addition to walking along the lake, you can also rent a bicycle for transportation. Besides setting up tents for picnics, flying kites, taking electric boats, and having a barbecue gathering with friends on the lawn, there are also many amusement facilities and a dinosaur park (additional fee required) in the park.