Lovers' plums were in full bloom in an eastern suburb of Nanjing, Jiangsu province on Feb. 14. The plums, which always bloom within a fixed period around Valentine's Day, are a rare species named by the academic Chen Junyu. In Nanjing, the plums are planted on 1,553 mu (about 1.02 million square meters) of land, with 35,000 individual plum trees.

This year's Nanjing International Plum Blossom Festival will open on Feb. 17, 2017.