1. Amid familiar surroundings at the Guizhou Garden, students from the province studying in Beijing celebrate their various hometowns. 2. Foreign participants celebrate as they reach the finish line in the 5-km 'color run'. 3. Local performers entertain tourists with a drum dance. (China Daily)

The ninth China International Garden Expo has created a new, popular tourism destination in the capital city this year.

Covering 513 hectares, the expo held in Beijing's Fengtai district has already received nearly 2 million visitors from both home and abroad since its opening on May 18.

About 20,000 tourists have visited the expo every day in average. On June 11, the number hit a record high of 75,000 on a single day.

Set to close in November, the expo is the biggest event that Beijing has since the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Its many highlights include not only the variety of plants, finely designed gardens in different styles, but also the various cultural and interactive activities.

Every day at 10:30 am a grand float parade cruises across the expo park, turning it to a large carnival.

A living statue performance was recently added. Dressed in exaggerated costumes and accessories, artists walk along the parade, stopping from time to time to pose in front of curious visitors.

Organizers said they plan to add more new, interesting performances to the parade, for example, stilts walkers, circus clown jugglers, a kung fu show, a marching band and bianlian, the traditional Chinese art of changing masks.

According to organizers, in the three months since the expo opened, they have organized 368 cultural performances with about 22,000 performers.

These include shows brought by performers from eight cities to display their distinguished cultural characteristics. The seven districts of Beijing also contributed their own performances.