Construction has started on the largest park in southwest China's Sichuan Province, which will feature flowers and traditional Chinese buildings.
The 267-hectare park is in Sansheng township in the provincial capital Chengdu.
The project involves investment of 58 million yuan (US$7 million) and work is due to finish in late August.
The park will consist of a 10,000-square-metre fresh-flower exhibition hall, pavilions and pools. Ancient temples, residences and memorial archways dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) will be modeled in the park.
The ancient buildings are being moved from their original locations to make way for the city's massive renovation project.
They will become major parts of a reproduction of an ancient Chengdu street from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The park is expected to open in October to host Sichuan's first flower exposition, said Yang Lijuan, a member of the exposition's organizing committee. More than 100 different types of flowers will blossom in the park during the different seasons.
The exposition hopes to attract participants from flower associations and flower dealers from different parts of the country.
It aims to make Chengdu's flower sector better known to the outside world and to turn Sansheng township into a leading distribution center in China's flower sector, Yang said.
Located in southeastern Chengdu, Sansheng has been designated the "hometown of flowers" by the State Forestry Administration.
Forty-eight percent of the township's 807 hectares of farmland is planted with flowers, and more than 60 percent of the township's 7,100 farming households are involved in the flower trade.
The township is known for its chrysanthemums, orchids and lilies. Since 1991, it has accounted for 80 percent of Chengdu's flower market.
Its Gaodianzi Fresh-flower Wholesale Market has become southwest China's largest distribution center for fresh flowers.
(China Daily June 16, 2003)
