Plum, cherry trees planted by Shanghai medical teams in full blossom

Ti Gong

Plum and cherry trees planted two years ago in Songjiang by Shanghai medical teams who had assisted central China's Wuhan City in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak are thriving and blossoming this spring as Shanghai also looks to build up its strength in confronting a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April 2020, members of Shanghai medical teams who had assisted Wuhan, as well as public security, traffic, community, sanitary, journalism and volunteer workers, shoveled ground and planted a piece of plum tree wood in the suburban district's Guangfulin Country Park.

A revisit to the park two years later shows the trees in a flourishing state, while the heroes in harm's way from Shanghai are busy working in their positions at quarantine venues, COVID-19 testing sites or hospitals.

At Chenshan Botanical Garden, not far from the country park, a similar touching story is unfolding.

In 2020, a photo about a sick elderly man, assisted by a medical staff from Shanghai, watching a sunset went viral and touched many people. Wang Xin, the elderly man, turned out to be a retired violinist from the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra.

In March 2021, Chenshan Botanical Garden and Wuhan Botanical Garden held a concurrent cherry-themed music concert in which the recovered elderly man also participated and presented a performance.

During this concert, the first batch of Shanghai medical team which had assisted Wuhan planted a cerasus campanulata sapling at the botanical garden, in the hope that the vigorous growth of the tree will encourage people.

Now the cherry tree is finally in bloom.

According to Liu Zhao, a botanist of Chenshan Botanical Garden, the cherry tree is growing well, while other cherry trees, cerasus campanulata and kawazu sakura, will blossom soon.