For Beijingers, spring comes late this year. It's not until April that trees will turn green and flowers blossom. After a long wait, people are eager to touch the green, so let's go to the outskirts of the capital and see some popular choices.

 

Cherry orchard at Fragrance Hill

Standing at the foot of the famed Xiangshan or Fragrance Hill, Yingtaoyuan or the Cherry Orchard is the nearest fruit picking spot from downtown Bejing. To its east, is the famous Summer Palace while in the north is Beijing Botanical Garden.

A visit to the Cherry Orchard will help you find more than a hundred kinds of cherry. The Cherry Orchard not only offers you fruit picking but also an experience of the distinctive Chinese gardens, a well-integrated texture of water, rockeries, pavilions, bridges with rarely-seen trees and flowers with notice boards with more details.

Every year, a fruit picking festival is held from mid May to the end of June. Spring is the time to taste fresh cherries and apricots, while summer is for peaches, autumn for dates and cherry apples, and crabapples for early winter.