The 2006 Shenyang International Horticultural Exposition was opened in Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province, by the city's mayor Li Yingjie Sunday morning.

The Shenyang Expo, integrating gardening of different styles from 23 foreign countries and 53 Chinese cities, displays to visitors a beautiful image of "man and nature in harmony," said Liaoning Province Governor Zhang Wenyue, who's also director of the Expo organizing committee.

Covering more than five square kilometers and larger than all the previous international horticultural expositions the setting for the event, very appropriately, is a local forest. .

Based at Shenyang Arboretum, the Expo site consists of 95 international, national and special gardens, four major buildings, an entrance plaza and a lake area.

The Expo is being held from April 30 to October 31 and is expected to attract 10 million visitors from home and abroad.

It's sponsored jointly by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Construction, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the Liaoning Provincial Government and is organized by the Shenyang Municipal Government.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2006)