Tens of thousands rush to enjoy cherry blossom festival

Over 30,000 visitors rushed to north Shanghai over the weekend for the city's annual cherry blossom festival.

More are expected to visit Gucun Park in Baoshan District this weekend for the festival which runs through April 15, coinciding with the Qingming Festival holiday, the district government said. The park features the largest group of cherry blossom trees in the city.

The more than 12,000 cherry blossom trees from 82 species in the park have nearly all bloomed, the park's operator said. The magnolia, redbud and crabapple flowers also gradually bloomed over the weekend to add to the park's spring feeling.

The majority of visitors went to the park between 9am and noon and left between 2pm and 6pm, the park said.

Last year, a record 182,966 visited the park on April 3 during the Qingming Festival holiday.

This year, measures have been put in place in case visitors to the park exceed its maximum capacity of 200,000.

These include more subway trains being put into service, and ten shuttle buses being placed on standby to ship visitors to the nearby stations of Metro lines 1, 3 and 7.

Authorities have allocated 2,000 extra parking spaces so that a total of 5,400 cars can be parked at one time.