Could our Korean and Chinese members explain how popular blossom viewing is in their country.
I got some more information about Chinese flower viewing.

There is a tradition called “武汉梅花节 /Wuhan Plum flower festival ,where people go to view Plum flowers during spring, http://www.xfcn.org/ (sorry the website is in Chinese , again).

There are also Flower Viewing Festival at Jietai Temple (戒台寺赏花节)and Peony festival in Luoyang etc.

But I am not certain what exactly they do, maybe the Chinese posters here in China can help us out here? I am thinking perhaps they buy tickets to go see the exhibition and have a picnic in the park to watch the blooms.

Moreover, I am being told that “In ancient times, scholars taking Imperial exams would scour the gardens and parks in the capital for beautiful blooms. After the first two top candidates, the third would be nicknamed as 探花 (tan hua which means look up flower) .”