Beijing Turns Colorful Foliage Into Economic Value as Residents and Visitors Enjoy Nature's Beauty

CCTV.com reports (Xinwen Lianbo): In late autumn and early winter, Beijing has entered the best period for viewing colorful foliage. Streets and lanes glow gold, while hills and countryside turn red, unfolding a succession of vibrant ecological scenes across the capital as residents and visitors enjoy nature's beauty.

In recent days, ginkgo leaves have drifted in the wind at the Old Summer Palace and Zhongshan Park, filling the view with gold. At Wucai Qianshan in Shunyi, red leaves cover the hills in distinct layers of color. In the dawn redwood grove at the China National Botanical Garden, mist fills the air, making visitors feel as though they have entered a fairyland.

The “Red Persimmon Courtyard” at Lao She's former residence is also seeing a peak in visitor numbers. In the traditional courtyard house, fiery red persimmons and goldfish appear together in a captivating autumn scene, while traces of literary creation and imaginatively designed cultural and creative products add to the courtyard's cultural appeal.

The growing flow of foliage-viewing visitors is also sustaining brisk spending at markets, village cafés and farm courtyards. In Dongshan Pear Blossom Valley in Mentougou, the local community has drawn on a grove of 600 century-old Jingbai pear trees to introduce products such as pear paste, pear bread and pear-flavored coffee, which are popular with visitors. At Pofengling in Fangshan, hele noodles slowly cooked over wood fires and buns filled with wild vegetables often sell out, while rooms at boutique guesthouses are extremely hard to find during the autumn viewing season.

This autumn, Beijing has also selected eight mountain and woodland locations for mountain views and eight expanses of forest and flowers, and coordinated the launch of more than 300 distinctive autumn-themed activities, continually adding new settings and experiences for visitors to enjoy the season.

At present, Beijing has nearly 2.78 million mu planted with tree species that produce colorful foliage, and has added another 400 kilometers of forest trails in its lower mountain areas this year. By weaving together multilayered autumn landscapes, it is gradually turning ecological beauty into tangible cultural and tourism output, continually creating new scenes of ecological benefits for the public.