Jincang Lake Ecological Garden in Donglin village, Taicang, Jiangsu province, held its first grape-picking festival on Aug 2, attracting many visitors from nearby cities. It promoted the festival through its official WeChat account, and city dwellers and their families flocked to the garden to pick fresh grapes.

Ahead of the festivities, the garden set up a rest area with more than 10 large electric fans to help visitors cool down. Currently, people are allowed to pick several different varieties of grapes.

"I love walking around the garden, picking and tasting fresh fruit," said a man surnamed Hu. "It makes me feel carefree and close to the nature."

Since the festival began last week, it has welcomed crowds of visitors with peak days seeing over 1,000. More than 20 volunteers and village authorities worked in the garden to maintain order and offer additional services.

The festival is scheduled to last 15 days, but it may end earlier than anticipated if there is no longer fruit to be picked in the garden.

"The number of visitors is more than we expected," said a village authority. "We will expand the garden so more people can enjoy the rural scenery and have fun fruit-picking."

The garden covers an area of 150 mu (10 hectares) and grows grapes, pears, oranges, kiwis, nectarines and cherries. An organic fertilizer and modern agricultural technologies ensure a high quality of fruit.