Self-Drive Tour of Jiangnan Flower Viewing (Part 17): Enjoying Cherry Blossoms at Quyuan

On March 24, 2019, at 12:30 pm, we left Yue Temple Square and walked onto the curved bridge at the north entrance of Quyuan Fenghe. I wondered if this curved bridge was the origin of the name 'Quyuan' in Quyuan Fenghe? I quickly opened Baidu to search and found out that the Quyuan Fenghe scenic area is composed of Quyuan, Fenghe, and lakeside dense forests, among which Quyuan was a yard for brewing liquor during the Southern Song Dynasty. Later, lotus flowers were planted outside the yard, and when the summer breeze blew, the fragrance of wine and lotus was refreshing. When determining the Ten Scenes of West Lake, to form a four-character name, Quyuan Fenghe was created. Walking on the curved bridge with the cool breeze, in the classic images of Quyuan Fenghe, both sides of the bridge are filled with lotus leaves and flowers, but now there is nothing on either side of the bridge, just a stretch of water. At the end of the bridge, there is a house with several cherry trees to the west, blooming profusely, with white blossoms stretching into the lake, forming beautiful reflections in the water, while the lakeshore is crowded with people admiring the view. We walked past the hall with the sign 'Fucui Water Pavilion', and the open space behind the hall was also full of cherry blossoms, all white, clustered like a brocade. We raised our phones and kept taking pictures, walking into the bushes, onto the stone bridges, standing, sitting, lying down, capturing these beautiful scenes from every possible angle, fearing that we might miss the most beautiful shot due to a moment of negligence. After viewing the cherry blossoms, we continued walking along the eastern lakeshore. At 1:30 pm, we stopped at the small restaurant of Zhenhu Zhutang and ordered a meal, sitting under the sun umbrellas by the shore to enjoy the view. After lunch, we continued along the shore, crossed the Yudai Bridge, and walked onto the Su Causeway. The peach trees on the Su Causeway only had buds, but the yellow forsythias were in full bloom, and occasionally we came across one or two cherry trees in bloom. From 8:30 am, starting our walk from Fengqi Road subway station to Wangshan Bridge on the Su Causeway, we had been walking almost non-stop for 5 to 6 hours. Our enthusiasm for sightseeing had waned, and our legs were numb. Standing on Wangshan Bridge, we took one last look at the distant Leifeng Pagoda, then all that was left was to walk. On the remaining path, our feet mechanically moved forward, and whenever we saw an empty seat on a bench by the road, we hurriedly moved over to sit down. Finally, we finished walking the Su Causeway. At this time, Nanshan Road was packed with people. We squeezed through the crowd while looking for the bus stop for the bus we needed to take; inadvertently, we saw a large cherry blossom garden on the south side of Nanshan Road, incredibly beautiful. At the time, I didn't pay much attention, but after getting home and looking at the map of Hangzhou, I realized that the cherry blossoms were actually Hangzhou's most famous flower viewing spot—Prince Bay Park. We took the Y6 bus from the Su Causeway bus stop, transferred to the 195 bus at Fengshan Gate station, and returned home at 6 pm.