Sublime treats to delight the senses
China Flower Expo set to once again enthrall visitors with dazzling array of floral exhibits from around the world
The 10th China Flower Expo will open in Shanghai’s Chongming Island on May 21 and run through July 2. The expo, considered the premiere gardening-themed event in China, will span 10 square kilometers and feature a peony-shaped flower field, six pavilions showcasing flowers from around the world and six gardens for floral art.
Designed around the theme of “Blossom with the Chinese Dream”, the expo comprises 180 outdoor show gardens, 64 indoor exhibition zones, and two service zones.
Tourists will get to see over 20,000 exhibits, including 1,000 types of new flowers. Innovative flower designs by members of 30 families in the Yangtze River Delta will also be on display in the expo. This year’s edition marks the first time the expo is displaying works by the public.
“It will be the first expo to be hosted on an island, in the countryside and
surrounded by forests,” said Li Zheng, Party secretary of Chongming District Committee.
“Chongming has been promoting its flower industry so that it can transform itself into an ecological zone, and this is the essence of the flower expo,” Li said.
Among the highlights of the expo are two pavilions designed by Shanghai — the Shanghai Garden, and the Century Pavilion — according to Deng Jianping, director of the municipal greening and city appearance administration.
As the largest pavilion in the expo, the 5,000-square-meter Shanghai Garden will showcase a wide variety of flowers such as day lilies, 30 varieties of which are developed locally, dawn redwoods and centuryold podocarpus plants.
The Century Pavilion, the major expo venue shaped like a butterfly and with a roof covered by flowers, features a rare bark cloth tree as well as a giant kapok tree.
“It’s my first time seeing so many plants,” said Zheng Xingren, a security guard at the expo.
“During a shift break at work, I’ll walk around to take photos of flowers. I wouldn’t know about such colorful plants if I didn’t work here,” he added.
According to authorities, 99.53 percent of expo staff in the operation, management and service positions had received their COVID-19 vaccines so far.
Launched in 1987 in Beijing, the expo has been promoting the development of the flower industry in China for decades. The host venue is rotated among Chinese cities every four years.
As of 2020, China was the world’s largest flower production base with a flower planting area of 15,000 sq km that generated annual sales of over 250 billion yuan ($38.8 billion).
“The expo has been a platform for flower exchanges and cooperation, driving the development of the entire industrial chain including flower research and development, processing and logistics,” said Liu Dongsheng, deputy director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
According to Shi Mingfang, chairman of Shanghai-based Bright Dairy and Food, the group has built a 76,000sq m smart greenhouse, the group’s largest flower factory in Shanghai, to store flowers for the expo.
Wang Hua, the official photographer of the expo, said he is looking forward to the opening of the expo. Wang has recorded the transformation of the expo venue through 5 terabyte worth of images since construction first began in 2019.
“I am honored to be engaged in the project. I hope that through my lens more people can understand how magnificent the expo is. It is just like a flower island on the river,” Wang said.