After a long winter, spring is the ideal time for sightseeing and exploring London’s green spaces.

1. Explore London’s parks and gardens

Spring time is one of the perfect times of year to explore London’s parks and gardens, when the city’s plants are blooming. Go and admire the rainbow of azaleas (杜鹃花) at Richmond Park or hire a deckchair in St James’s Park with a view of Buckingham Palace.

2. Enjoy the entertainment at spring festivals

There are a good many festivals and events held in London throughout spring. Make the most of the cultural exhibitions at the British Library Spring Festival, the Sundance Film Festival or the London Literature Festival; head for Shakespeare’s Globe, which hosts open-air Shakespeare performances from late April to early October.

3. Get active

Warmer weather means there’s no excuse for staying indoors, so go for a walking or cycling tour of London. Alternatively, walk the Thames Walkway, which follows the river all the way from central London to the countryside; make the most of London’s “Boris Bikes”, which are available for hire all around the city and are free of charge for the first half hour. If you’re really looking for a challenge, take part in the famous London Marathon, held annually in April.

4. Take to the waters

Whether cruising (航行)along the Thames River, hiring a rowing boat in Hyde Park or riding a canal boat around Little Venice, there are lots of fun ways to get on the water in London. Held every year since 1829, the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race allows teams from England’s most famous universities to complete against each other, and draws huge crowds of watching people.

Getting Around Britain

In Britain, we still calculate distances in miles and we still drive on the left. Many of Britain’s roads follow ancient Roman roads and you have to pay at some old roll（收费）bridges dating back hundreds of years. In London, we still have red double-decker buses and black London taxis. Before they can work, London taxi drivers still have to spend about 18 months learning all about the streets of London to get ‘the knowledge’.

【小题1】There are now more than 25 million cars on our roads so traffic jams are common on Britain's motorways, like the M25 around London. 【小题2】 You get delays caused by unpredictable events such as ‘leaves on the lines’ in autumn. To improve the situation in transport, the government is investing a lot of money in the railways and coming out with ‘new’ ideas like toll motorways and congestion charges in major cities like London.

Despite all of this, there are some fantastic ways of getting around the country and enjoying yourself at the same time.【小题3】 Britain has thousands of miles of quiet country lanes and forest tracks which are ideal for keen cyclists. There are even more footpaths for walking holidays from one end of the country to the other, like Offa’s Dyke Footpath on the lovely borders of England and Wales. For more adventures, there are plenty of places for horse riding and canoeing as well as hang-gliding, paragliding and ballooning.

【小题4】 Britain has a great network of canals, a lot of them going through spectacular countryside. Another relaxed option is to go on one of Britain's many steam railways like the Seven Valley Railway or the Snowdown Railway which goes up the highest mountain in Wales. Just sit back and enjoy it!

Su Min, a 56-year-old retiree from Henan Province in central China, has never been happier. After accomplishing her family's expectations of dutiful Chinese womanhood, Ms. Su is holding a new identity: fearless road-tripper. For six months, this Chinese aunt has been on a solo drive across China, documenting her journey for more than 1.35 million followers across several social media platforms.

Before last fall, Ms. Su had rarely traveled. But she had long been fond of the idea of driving. Growing up in Tibet, she sometimes missed the school bus home and had to walk 12 miles through the mountains. Each time a truck passed by, she imagined sitting behind the wheel, safe and comfortable. But cars were rare, and having one seemed impossible. Then, in late 2019, she came across a video online of someone introducing their camping gear while on a solo road trip. She remembered her childhood dream of driving—the freedom and comfort it had represented.

Over the following months, she watched every video she could find about road trips. She took plentiful notes: which apps they used to find campsites and which tricks they had for saving money. Soon, she made up her mind: Once her grandsons entered preschool, she would embark on a trip of her own. She had bought a small white car several years earlier, with her savings and a monthly pension of around $300.

In her videos, she was happy at her newfound freedom. She could go wherever she wanted and stop at any place she liked. Still, Ms. Su blushes when asked about her new fame. “It took me so many years to realize that I had to live for myself.” She paused, “It's something I'm waking up to, not something that I just am.”