On May 18, Beijing proudly announced the start of the Ninth China (Beijing) International Garden Expo, embracing another chance to showcase its beauty to the world following the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The Expo will close on November 18, after a 6-month run.

The site of the Beijing Garden Expo is located on the banks of the Yongding River in southwestern Beijing, built over a former constructionwaste landfill. Cutting-edge ecological restoration techniques transformed the former wasteland into an alluringly lush garden, embodying the Expo’s philosophy of “transforming foul into beautiful” through ecological restoration. The site, composed of 128 parks, covers an area of 513 hectares, twice the size of the Summer Palace.

Essence of Chinese Gardens

“For foreign visitors, the biggest draw is the fact that they can appreciate some of the best Chinese regional gardens without traveling all over the country,” said Qiao Xiaopeng, vice director of the Information Department of Fengtai District Government. “These are full-scale reproductions, not miniatures.”

When the Beijing Garden Expo kicked off, it welcomed 200,000 visitors in the first five days. The Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture, the Main Exhibition Pavilion, Beijing Garden, Jiangsu Garden and Lingnan Garden have proven the most appealing to tourists so far.

The museum, China’s first of national caliber, is a particular must-see at the Expo. On its 50,000- square-meter premises, some of China’s best known private gardens were partially or wholly recreated on 1:1 scale, in addition to new designs tailor-made for the local topography.

Included are replicas of three classical gardens from the South: Changyuan Garden of Suzhou, Yuyin Mountain House of Guangzhou and Pianshi Mountain House of Yangzhou, all more than a century old. A section of Beijing’s Banmu Garden, dating from the reign of Qing Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722), was also recreated as representative of landscape architecture from China’s northern plains. The museum dedicated two additional plots to the northern school: Sunset Glow Mountain House and Pagoda Reflection Garden, which respectively feature mountain and water scenes of Eagle Mountain, where the museum is located. A miniature of the Summer Palace, covering 250 square meters, was included as a token to royal gardening art. The scenery varies drastically and quickly as visitors move from place to place, creating an ideal “picture tour.”

The 3.2-hectare Main Exhibition Pavilion of the Beijing Garden Expo, with floor space of 50,000 square meters, is the major venue for indoor displays and activities. Its design was inspired by the China Rose and intended to reflect the “origin of life” concept. When viewed from above, the pavilion also resembles the number nine, representing the fact that the Beijing installment is the ninth International Garden Expo.

Inside the pavilion, a 3D animated film is screened displaying a famous ancient painting of Lugou Bridge, which depicts a scene of rafts transporting logs on the Yongding River and unloading them at Lugou Bridge in southwestern Bejing. Large quantities of timber and other materials were shipped to Beijing for a colossal construction project after it was selected the new capital of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

The pavilion has dedicated most its space to exhibitions featuring foreign and domestic garden art, new technology, material and achievements in gardening and forestation, and artistic products related to gardening, rare rocks, flower arrangements and potted plants.

Jiangsu Garden, an assembly of various centerpieces of timeless gardens throughout the southern province, is another Expo highlight. Its 13,000 square meters are characterized by diverse conceptual space showcasing classical Jiangnan garden design techniques and embodies harmony between humans and nature. Elegantly arranged rocks, pavilions and painted corridors, a slim bridge over a lotus pool, and inscriptions on buildings, all unfurl along winding paths like the scroll of a traditional Chinese painting.

Jiangsu Garden is just one quintessential display amongst 128 regional gardens at the expo, including 47 from Chinese cities and 32 presented by foreign countries.

Also, three globally celebrated landscape architects,Pete Walker from the U.S., Peter Latz from Germany and Toru Mitani from Japan, each designed a garden in Innovation Exhibition Park, one of the most visionary pieces of the Beijing Garden Expo.