Best feet forward for group walking tour
Participants wearing cheongsam in front of the Memorial of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Shutterbugs take photos at the Shanghai Lavender Park.
A group walking tour to promote a healthy lifestyle and enable locals to experience the city's summer tourism glamour was held over the weekend.
The event attracted more than 800 participants, mostly shutterbugs and walking tour activists. They experienced the fragrance of lavender during the lavender festival at the Shanghai Lavender Park inside the Shanghai International Resort, and appreciated the blooming flower sea at the ongoing 10th China Flower Expo on Chongming Island.
The city's largest lavender field is in full bloom at the Shanghai Lavender Park, which 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.
The walking tour, jointly hosted by Shanghai Spring Tour and Shanghai Shendi Group, is part of some 30 activities staged during the annual lavender festival. It relies on public transportation for some parts.
Participants wearing cheongsam in front of the double-decker, hop-on-hop-off "Red" sightseeing bus.
Participants take photos on the double-decker, hop-on-hop-off "red" sightseeing bus.
For the first time, the walking tour in its third year included a "red" tourism route for residents to learn the city's revolutionary history and mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.
Participants took a double-decker, hop-on-hop-off "red" sightseeing bus which just began trial operations in late May, connecting major revolutionary sites in the city, and visited the Memorial of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
"As a Shanghainese, it is the first time that I learned the city's revolutionary past and appreciated the romantic lavender sea in one day in such a unique way, which is impressive," said a participant surnamed Wang.
The bus route includes five stops – the sites of the first, second and fourth national congresses of the CPC, the May 30th Movement Monument and Nanjing Road E. The 20-kilometer trip takes 90 minutes.
