It might be October, but Beijing is in bloom. From Tiananmen Square to the far-flung suburbs around the Fifth Ring Road, over
3 million flowerpots appeared almost overnight, two weeks ago, by roadsides and in public spaces. It's one of the idiosyncrasies of the capital that it looks its best in early autumn, when the National Day holiday rolls around. The municipal government, private companies and community organisations celebrate by mounting elaborate displays of yellow, pink and red chrysanthemums, Beijing's official flower.
Although the flower show is an annual event, it was no coincidence that the blooms, which normally live in nurseries outside Beijing, appeared just as the world's media flew into town for the first Olympic press briefing. As they toured the various sites for the 2008 Olympic Games, colleagues on their first visit to Beijing were pleasantly surprised by the fact that the city isn't the drab, grey, urban nightmare of legend. But then, with the October winds blowing away the pollution and the sun shining, Beijing has an almost balmy air at this time of year.
No place has been transformed more than Tiananmen Square, the heart of the city and the birthplace of modern China. Designed to induce awe, the vast, concrete space is normally a cold, forbidding place. For the first two weeks of October, though, Tiananmen is a sea of flowers - including, this year, small-scale replicas of Tibet's Potala Palace and the Three Gorges Dam.
Tiananmen is the No1 destination for domestic tourists during the National Day holiday week. So many people were in the square over the first weekend that a child was being reported missing every two or three minutes. Most of the visitors seemed entranced by the kitsch replicas. 'I can't afford to go to Tibet, so it's nice to see the model,' said a Ms Wu from Inner Mongolia . 'But I think it would be good if there were flowers here all year round.'
It's not just tourists who'd like to see the square brightened up more often. One high-profile Chinese architect raised official eyebrows recently by suggesting Tiananmen should be re-developed by planting trees across it. More and more Beijingers, though, are wondering why the city looks so good only during the holiday week - then reverts to its stereotype of a grim metropolis for the rest of the year.