Chengdu expo lays out examples for better ecological development

China has set good examples on how to balance economic development with ecology to create a more sustainable way to live, according to horticultural experts attending the International Horticultural Exhibition 2024 in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

The exhibition, themed around Chengdu being a park city, covers 42 hectares. It opened in April and will run until Oct 28, and features 113 exhibitions and gardens from across the globe. There are seven major exhibition areas showcasing the best in gardening from countries such as France, Italy, the United Kingdom and cities around China.

"I must mention how impressive the country's development is with ecological development, and this is the direction that we should pursue for our next generation not just in China, but in the world," said Lee Da-eun, of the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH), from South Korea.

Leonardo Capitanio, president of AIPH, said the Chengdu expo has reached a new level for an international horticultural exhibition, with excellent gardens featuring a lot of greenery.

"China has a beautiful vision on designing the future. You (China) are designing in a proper way because you are looking for a more sustainable way to live. I see what we, as foreigners, can learn from this country," he said.

Tim Briercliffe, AIPH secretary general, said he has witnessed China becoming a more sustainable country with cities becoming greener in recent years.

"I heard at the Beijing expo in 2019 the announcement from President Xi Jinping, where he talked about a vision of ecological development in cities. What I've seen since then is cities are really implementing that and to the point where it's changing people's lives," he said.

Briercliffe said he liked the traditional culture displayed in gardens from different cities in China such as Yangzhou, but he's more interested in how greenery can connect with people's daily lives, especially in big cities with their concrete and buildings.

A small rooftop courtyard decorated with plants and flowers in the Shanghai garden display at the expo left a strong impression.

"Everyone has walls and roofs, so they can be converted into something horticultural. When people from other cities visit, they will see ideas and concepts that they can apply on a city level," he said.

The idea of having "green walls" in cities is something that Briercliffe said he's seen in several cities across China.

Green walls require technology to achieve, because getting water and fertilizer to plants on a high wall is no easy feat, he said.

"The policy of ecological development in China's cities is being implemented in a way that other countries are not doing. I hope this expo is an opportunity for other cities around the world to see that they can do the same," he said.

Tim Edwards, former board member of AIPH, agreed. He visited China's capital in 2019 for the Beijing World Horticultural Exhibition, which was the largest international horticultural expo ever held. The 503-hectare expo site attracted 9.34 million visitors in the months it was open.

International horticultural exhibitions and world horticultural exhibitions — defined according to their size and the number of participating countries — started by AIPH have been held in more than 50 countries since 1960.

Chengdu is one of eight cities in China to have hosted the expo, with Kunming, Yunnan province, holding one in 1999, and Beijing in 2019.

"The Beijing expo was the best expo that I'd seen to that point. But when I arrived in Chengdu, I saw that the standard of horticulture has again increased," Edwards said.

"It's already obvious that the expo is simply a part of a bigger project here to green the city, and the expo demonstrates techniques that are going to be utilized throughout the bigger project. So I think it's a very fine example," he added.

Edwards recalled that when he first came to China decades ago, there were only a few plants that would be grown by the industry commercially, and those that were grown were mainly certain species rather than in varieties.

"Now, the quality of the plants on show in Chengdu is the highest I've ever seen," he said.

In addition to plant varieties, the technology used in horticulture has also improved a lot in China in recent years, he noted.

"There were green walls at the 2019 Beijing expo, but I felt that the designers were showing off some new techniques. This year a lot of the gardens have green walls, and I can see they're now being used with confidence," he said.

Besides showcasing a wide variety of plants, the more important meaning of the exhibition is that gardens can reflect a close relationship between the local ecological environment and the lives of local people, said Takuhiro Yamada, a horticultural expert from Japan.

"For those of us in the horticultural industry, how to maintain a climate more suitable for human survival is an important issue that we have been studying. We hope that through these exhibition gardens, everyone can rekindle their awareness of the environment and climate, highlighting the importance of protecting the ecology and climate," he said.

"With Chengdu being a park city, the park created for the expo will enable the city to establish itself as an example to the world of how to create green city ecology, and how to develop ecologically in a way that will create an attractive livable environment for citizens," said Briercliffe from AIPH.