The industrial city Shenyang is set to become a green metropolis when it hosts the World Horticulture Exposition in 2006, local officials said yesterday.

The half-year-long expo will begin on May 1, 2006, on the eastern outskirts of Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

"The garden we are planning will not only be the exhibition hall of horticulture but also a comprehensive entertainment center. It will keep on running after the fair is over," said Yang Yazhou, an assistant to the mayor.

Yang went to Belgium early last month to make a final presentation to the International Association of Horticulture Producers (AIPH) and received approval for Shenyang's bid.

The AIPH is a co-ordinating body representing horticultural production organizations all over the world. It was set up in Switzerland in 1948 to promote the international marketing of flowers, plants and landscaping services.

"To hold such an international fair would not only speed up our environmentally friendly urban construction but also build up Shenyang's new green image," said Xu Jianmin, a spokesman for the Shenyang municipal government.

As a major base of heavy industry, Shenyang has long had the reputation of being seriously polluted. This reached a peak when Shenyang was listed as one of the world's 10 most polluted cities in the 1990s.

However, the situation has changed since then as the local government began making efforts to better the environment.

During the past decade, the local government has put around 2 billion yuan (US$240 million) into environmental cleaning and protection. Shenyang finally turned the tide in 1998.

Moreover, this fair may help prompt the flower industry, said Yang.

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show that Liaoning is one of the nation's bases of corms and cut flowers.

The annual high-quality corm output touches 100 million yuan (US$12 million), accounting for 30 percent of national demand. And the annual sales of cut flowers reach 210 million yuan (US$25 million).

The fair will help Shenyang grow into the flower trade center of northeastern China, said Yang.

"Different from those cities that have held the expo, we will make full use of the existing Shenyang plant garden rather than establish a new one from scratch. This will save a lot of money," Xu said.

Yang said the local government will welcome private funds to help stage the fair.

Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province, held the expo in 1999.

(China Daily September 20, 2004)