KUNMING EXPO 99
The China '99 Kunming International Horticultural Exposition (Expo '99) will be held in Kunming, the provincial capital, from May 1 to October 31 this year. It is the first large-scale international exposition of its kind hosted by China.
With the theme "Man and Nature--Marching towards the 21st Century," the exposition will display abundant and diversified plants, flowers and gardens as a homage to horticultural art developed throughout the world. The Expo '99 also boasts art performances, parties, festive ceremonies and academic meetings.
Located at the Jindian Scenic Area in the northern part of Kunming, the exposition compound is basically divided into five indoor exhibition halls and four outdoor exposition sections, covering a total area of 218 hectares.
The indoor exhibition halls consist of the China Hall (exhibitors come from governments of the provinces, cities and autonomous regions of China and Chinese enterprises); international hall; huge greenhouse; Man and Nature Hall (displaying relations between man and the ecological system); Science and Technology Hall (exhibitors come from Chinese and foreign governments and enterprises).
The outdoor exhibition area displays China's rich horticultural tradition as well as that of Western countries. The Chinese section embraces representative natural scenic spots, places of human interest and scientific and technological developments in the horticultural sector, which emphasize the characteristics of 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China.
They include the Wanchun Garden from Beijing, which embodies the elegance and magnificence of the capital city; the Pearl Garden of Shanghai, which demonstrates the vitality of the metropolis in recent years; and the Mountain and Water Garden of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which will show the integration of mountains, waters and gardens. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region shows its image as "Home of the Grassland" while the Tibetan Autonomous Region has its "Treasure Garden."
The International section includes gardens from Asia, Europe, America and Africa. The Asian area focuses on architecture of various styles. The European sector emphasizes plants and courtyard arrangements. The American area displays tropical plants and their national styles.
The Basics theme gardens section is another attractive area of outdoor exhibitions. It consists of a bamboo garden, vegetables and melons garden, potted landscape garden, medicine herbs garden (planting traditional medicine herbs of ornamental value) and tea garden (displaying tea culture and tea processing).
Trams separately provided for visitors, children and the disabled are available. There are special passages for the disabled. Cable cars from the compound to the Golden Temple Park are available, too. Twenty-five worldly advanced access control gates with magnetic card readers are installed to guarantee prompt, orderly and obstacle-free entry of the visitors.
It is estimated nearly 10 million people from home and abroad will tour the compound during 184 days of the exposition. In order to satisfy the demand of visitors, restaurants serving Chinese and western food, fast food and snacks are available. A modern recreation center will also be built to provide young people and children with opportunities to participate in recreational activities.
There are seven service sectors, 50 rest lounges consisting of 80 toilets, 2,500 seats, 120 telephones and two film developing shops.
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