Shanghai: The 10th China Flower Expo concluded in Shanghai on Saturday, but its legacy will boost related industries on the host Chongming Island, which aims to become a force in international flower industrial chains by 2025. Tang Zhiping, vice-mayor of Shanghai said, “The opening duration and scale of exhibits have set records in the expo’s history.”
A total of 189 exhibitors created 180 outdoor gardens and 64 indoor exhibitions for the expo that opened in May.
More than 20,000 flowers of 3,000 species were seen by 2 million people, and the virtual exhibition attracted 24 million online visits, said the organizing committee. “The expo was made successful despite COVID-19 thanks to efforts from all the people and partners home and abroad,” Tang said at the closing ceremony.
The venue for the expo will be turned into a park after maintenance is carried out in later half of July, when the major pavilions Fuxing Pavilion and Century Pavilion will continue to host flower-related exhibitions and part of the outdoor gardens will be kept open for tourists.
Gu Xiaojun, deputy director of the Shanghai municipal landscaping and city appearance administrative bureau, said, “The expo has made the ‘flowery island on the sea’ a name card for Chongming across the country as it’s building itself into a world-class ecological island.” Several flower production bases have been built or are under construction on the island for the boom of flower consumption generated by the expo. In Gangyan township, a 1,160 mu asparagus field has been turned into flower planting field.
Chen Quansheng, deputy director of Chongming district agricultural technology promotion center, told Jiefang Daily, “We have made this place an experiment field to plant different flowers and 20 species suited to the local environment to be planted in large scale and sold on market in the future.”
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
