City in a purple patch thanks to lavender festival
The city's annual lavender festival opens on Saturday.
A woman skips between rows of lavender.
The city’s largest lavender field is in full bloom at the Shanghai Lavender Park, with its annual festival now on.
The park, in the Shanghai International Resort, features nearly 200,000 Provence lavender shrubs covering more than 150,000 square meters. It is also ablaze with a 20,000-square-meter flower sea of roses.
A variety of activities are on offer, such as a pop-up food fair, pet carnival and Han clothing experiences. In particular, traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy chain Lei Yun Shang West has set up a stall to promote the tradition of wearing xiangnang, fragrant sachets.
Visitors take pictures against the backdrop of lavender.
Children are happy to receive lavender bouquets.
Sachets filled with fragrant herbs and medicinal powders are traditionally worn during the Dragon Boat Festival in June. The aroma they give off helps ward off insects and, it is said, evil spirits.
Fragrant sachets in various shapes and styles, such as lotus, zongzi (the traditional glutinous rice dumplings eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival) and 12 shengxiao (Chinese zodiac's 12 animal signs), are displayed for sale.
Also, people can fill the empty sachets with lavender, roses or wormwood leaves to make their own fragrant sachets.
TCM pharmacy chain Lei Yun Shang West promotes xiangnang culture.
A boy picks lavenders from flowers and herbs to make his xiangnang.
The lavender will be in full bloom until mid-June, and the festival will run through June 30. Tickets are available on various online ticketing channels such as Meituan and Trip.com.
Because of COVID-19 concerns, the park requires advanced registration for visitors, and the number of daily visitors is limited to 12,000. Also, visitors are required to present valid ID cards and health QR codes for entry.
