Beijing prepares 40 million flowers for Olympics

The picture shows the Green Olympic Landscape at the Qianmen Street in Beijing, July 20, 2008. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Beijing has prepared 40 million potted flowers to decorate streets and Olympic venues, according to a press briefing here on Tuesday.

These flowers will be placed not only at Tiananmen Square and Olympic venues, but also along the axis of Beijing, airport expressway, ring roads, and around Olympic Village and hotels.

"July and August are usually the hard time for flowers. We picked up over 20 kinds of heat-resistant flowers from more than 500 species of seasonable flowers to decorate the city, including chrysanthemum and salvia," said Wang Sumei, vice director of Beijing Landscape Forestation Bureau.

Committed to a "green" Olympics, Beijing has planted more than 30 million arbores and rosebushes greening a total area of 8,800 hectares since 2000.

During the past seven years, Beijing has witnessed an increase of some 10,000 hectares green space, 22.7 million trees and 46.5 million square meter lawn, according to Wang.

The city had expanded green coverage from 36 percent in 2000 tothe present 43 percent, she added.

As for the green construction for Olympic venues, Beijing planted 370,000 arbores and 2.1 million rosebushes around 31 Olympic stadiums, 45 training stadiums and more than 160 Olympic roads, with a total greening area of 1,026 hectares.