Ever since we had our child, we haven’t really gone back during Qingming for the past few years. The main reason is simple: the kid is still small. Going back means firecrackers and all the usual noise, and we were worried about him getting scared. That already happened during the Lunar New Year once—he got frightened, then sick, and it took a week or two before he slowly got better. So these days, my parents usually go back to pay respects to the ancestors, and we’ll think about taking the child along when he’s a bit older.
This year, the three-day Qingming holiday had pretty decent weather. It wasn’t too warm, and Qingming itself was overcast, which actually made it a great day to go out. So we headed to Lingshan Huajing, a place a friend had recommended.
To be honest, when I first heard the name, I imagined something like a huge flower park—one of those scenic spots built entirely around colorful blooms. But once we got there, my impression was that the so-called “flower scenery” was basically rapeseed flowers. Of course, that’s just my own interpretation, but inside the park, that was what I saw almost everywhere. I even joked with my wife that tourism at this stage is basically: you visit my village, I visit yours. After all, so many scenic spots are in villages or in the mountains, and what people come to see are often things city dwellers don’t usually have around them. Rapeseed flowers are a perfect example of that.
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There were honestly quite a lot of people there. Most of them seemed to come fully prepared with camping gear. They would take the park shuttle into the scenic area, get dropped off by an artificial lake, claim a good spot, set up their tents, and stay there for the whole day.
What I noticed, though, was that a lot of people were still mostly occupied with their electronic devices—phones, tablets, that sort of thing. Compared with staying at home, it was really just the same activity in a different setting. Still, maybe being outdoors makes it easier to relax and settle your mind, even if you’re doing the same things.
Overall, Lingshan Huajing is fairly spacious, but the feeling it gave me was closer to a large park than a destination built around a single must-see attraction. It’s the kind of place where you go for a walk, maybe camp for a while, and take it easy. And honestly, that seems to be exactly what a lot of people are looking for right now.