Photo taken on Dec. 27, 2018 shows cherry blossoms in Xingyi City, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Liu Chaofu)

With the best flower blossom season nearing, various tourism platforms in China have launched both domestic and overseas flower-viewing tours, Beijing Youth Daily reported on March 12.

“Between February and March is the best period to enjoy plum blossom, which is usually followed by the flowering seasons of cherry blossom, peach blossom, apricot flower, and rape flower,” said an executive of popular Chinese tourism service platform tuniu.com.

Domestic flower-viewing tourist routes featuring peach flower in Linzhi City, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, apricot blossom in Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and rape flower in Wuyuan County of east China’s Jiangxi Province are among the hottest flower-themed tourist routes, the executive noted.

Because of the heavy rain and low temperatures in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, which is also a city famous for its vast number of Japanese cherry trees, the start of the cherry blossom season in Wuhan is expected to begin in the last week of March.

According to sources, east China’s Shanghai has already witnessed record-breaking cherry blossom this year in terms of planting area, variety, and the sheer number of trees. The city has introduced different varieties of Japanese cherry, with the intention of extending the viewing period to attract more tourists.

Overseas trips launched by Chinese travel agencies have also drawn attention, with trips to various cities in Japan becoming the most popular tourist routes, to see the country's beautiful cherry blossom in all its glory.

The cherry blossom season is expected to last from March 19 to the end of April, while the season in Tokyo and Osaka, the two most popular destinations for Chinese tourists, will begin from around March 23 to 26.

As the domestic cherry blossom season is expected to start later this year, the flower-focused tourist routes to Japan have won the favor of Chinese tourists, according to the executive of tuniu.com, disclosing that the cost of cherry blossom tours to Japan will probably rise by 20 percent from last year.

To meet the rising demand for trips to Japan, Chinese airline companies made suitable arrangements as soon as the Spring Festival travel rush ended. Between February and March this year, more than 60 air routes from various cities in China to Japan have been launched by different Chinese airline companies.

Data from Fliggy.com, a well known Chinese tourism service platform, shows that so far, cheap tickets for flights to Japan in early March are still available, while there is a significant rise in the ticket prices for flights from China to Tokyo and Osaka, with the direct round trip cost more than 2,300 yuan (about $342.57).