THE annual Cherry Blossom Festival at Gucun Park in Baoshan District has started and runs into next month.

"The park has more than 12,000 cherry blossom trees and they will all start blooming from this weekend onward," Yang Xin, a district official told a press conference yesterday.

"Over 100,000 people are expected to flock to the park," he said, adding that "more are expected to come next weekend when most of the cherry flowers will be in bloom."

The park will be "the city's largest cherry flower garden," he said.

"The trees are expected to bloom better than in previous years as they are more accustomed to the local environment," Yang said.

"So large crowds of visitors will be attracted to the park this year," he said.

There are more than 60 types of cherry blossom tree in an area covering more than 730,000 square meters, he said.

He added that an 850,000-square-meter second phase of the park will also open to the public during the festival.

"Visitors will be invited to select the most beautiful cherry blossom tree," he said.

People can also take photographs next to any of the "eight most popular trees," he said.

Visitors will be able to take a free bus from the park to other tourism attractions near the park, such as Meilan Lake and the Shanghai Museum of Glass, said Gu Ying, director with the district's tourism bureau.

"Visitors can also taste some local style cuisine at nearby restaurant and hotels," she said.

Meanwhile, subway trains will be provided to evacuate the park if the number of tourists surpasses the park's maximum capacity of 200,000, said Qin Weixu, deputy director with the district’s transport commission.

No other Metro trains will stop at the Gucun Park station other than Line 7, he said.

"About 65 percent of the cherry blossom viewers will take Metro Line 7 to the park," he said, without explaining how the figure was calculated.

"Buses will also be dispatched to take visitors to various downtown spots during the peak visiting days," he said, without elaborating.

Authorities have this year allocated 2,000 extra parking spaces near to the park, so there will be room for 5,400 cars in total.

A total of 1.5 million people visited the festival last year.

Tickets for this year's event cost 20 yuan (US$3) for adults and children, and 4 yuan for people over 60 on production of a valid identity card or passport.