The story
Longhua Temple Fair in Longhua/Xuhui
Shanghai's largest temple fair centres on historic Longhua Temple in Xuhui each spring, timed to peach blossom season on the lunar calendar. Recent editions build the entire event around the folklore of the Twelve Flower Gods, with costumed parades, an immersive walking drama and dozens of floral-themed market stalls filling the streets around the temple.
Longhua Temple, one of Shanghai's oldest Buddhist temple complexes with roots tracing back roughly 1,700 years, gives its name to what has grown into the city's largest temple fair, timed each spring to the third day of the third lunar month when the surrounding Longhua district's peach trees bloom.