China Donated "Chinese Tang Garden" to Thai Government in Royal Flora Expo in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand-November 12, 2006 Recently, Madam Jiang Zehui, Chairwoman of China Flower Association, presided over a Garden Donation Ceremony, which was organized to officially donate "Chinese Tang Garden" which the Chinese Government built in celebration of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand in Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006, International Horticultural Exposition for His Majesty the King (November 1, 2006 - January 31, 2007, in Chiang Mai, Thailand,) to Thailand. Mr. Bai Li Chen, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of China People's Political Consultative Conference, also attended the ceremony. Mr. Theera Sutabutra, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand, represented the Royal Thai Government to officially receive the garden from China in the ceremony.

The garden is built by the China Flower Association in the style of Chinese traditional Jiangnan gardens in an area of 1,000 square meters. The designer of the garden tried to create a garden with condensed natural landscape, in which nature and civilization harmoniously merge together. This shows the idea of Chinese landscape design to express large scenes through small ones and create a natural effect through a man-made landscape.

Chinese landscape architecture witnessed its flourishing period in Tang Dynasty when Buddhism was widely popular. Based on this fact, the designer combined the style of garden in Tang Dynasty with Buddhism culture in the "Chinese Tang Garden" to express the long history of Chinese garden and Buddhism, as well as the long standing friendship between the people of China and Thailand.

From the early 1980s, China took opportunities to develop its floricultural industry. Under the principle of developing floriculture with economy and society harmoniously in a market-oriented way, as well as strengthening its macro-guidance and depending on science improvement, China gradually enhanced international cooperation and exchange and allowed floricultural associations to fully play their roles in organizing, coordinating and guiding the floricultural industry, which resulted in a consistently fast developing tendency of the industry.

According to statistics, in 2005, China's floriculture production area is 810,000 hectares, with a sales turnover of 50.3 billion and export amount of about 15,400 million US dollars.

China Flower Association is a member of the Association of International Horticultural Producers or AIPH--which, together with the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE), recognized the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006 as an A1 International Horticultural Exhibition, the first expo of such status in Southeast Asia. The organization has been actively involved in international floricultural events by holding 1999 Kunming International Horticultural Exposition, 2003 International Camellia Conference, the 4th Asian Cup competition of Flower Art and participating in 2002 International Horticultural Exposition held in the Netherlands and in the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006 in Thailand.

The "Chinese Tang Garden" is one of the 23 international outdoor gardens in the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006. The other 22 outdoor gardens include gardens from Belgium, the Netherlands, Bhutan, Iran, Japan, India, South Africa, Kenya, Sudan, Turkey, etc. All the gardens have been donated to Thailand to remain as permanent gifts to Thai people.

For more information of the "Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006," please contact the expo's Call Center at +66 2686 7272 or e-mail: [email protected]. Admission tickets are available online at www.royalfloraexpo.com.