With the solar term Start of Spring (Lichun) arriving, an early-spring plum festival has quietly opened in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, in eastern China. A plum grove of roughly 6.7 hectares has come alive with pink-and-white buds, and many residents have gone out to seek the first scents of the season.

The trees bloom in the wind, their faint fragrance and rhythmic petals giving Fuzhou an especially romantic early-spring atmosphere. The display is seen as ushering in good fortune and a fresh chapter of spring; locals speak of the blossoms as a blessing for warmth and hope.

One visitor said they come here every year around Lichun and that this season’s blooms opened earlier and look more vivid than usual. The plum blossoms in full bloom at the Start of Spring mark a lucky beginning to the year and a wish for brighter days ahead.