Flowers to decorate Beijing as National Day nears

A huge basket-shaped flower arrangement themed “Blessings to China” will be installed in Tian’anmen Square under the decoration plan for the upcoming National Day holiday on Oct 1.

The Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau unveiled the plan on Friday, saying that high-technology such as 3D modeling was adopted in the making of the flower beds.

Besides the main basket, 10 additional flower terraces with different good wishes to the country will be displayed along Chang’an Avenue.

“According to the plan, the decoration project will use about 2 million flowers with the main colors of yellow and red — which are colors of China’s national flag,” said Jie Jun, director of the bureau’s afforesting division.

He said the designer considered energy-saving and sustainability during the plan, so more local flowers and plants will be used in the arrangement instead of ones transported from other provinces.

Construction work was started on Thursday and is expected to be finished by Sept 23.

The main flower arrangement in the center of the square, which has been an annual National Day decoration since 2011, will be 17 meters high this year with its flower container at a height of 15.3 meters and a diameter at the base of 50 meters.