The China Shenyang International Horticultural Exposition drew a total of 950,000 visitors in the first three days of the nationwide May Day holiday season.

The number is five times more than Kunming attracted when it hosted the expo in 1999, the year before the country adopted the week-long holiday, said Zhao Changyi, Vice Mayor of Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Chinese girls wear bird costumes while attending an opening ceremony for the International Horticultural Exposition in Shenyang, northeast of China's Liaoning Province April 30, 2006. The show which lasts until October 31, 2006 features flowers and garden designs from 56 Chinese cities and 26 countries. [China Daily]

The exposition, which opened Sunday, is sited near the Qipan Hills in the eastern suburbs about an hour from downtown.

The 246-hectare venue features two huge sculptures made of flowers, a hall of roses, the city's adopted flower, along with gardens dedicated to the flora of Japan, India, Russia, the Netherlands, France, the United States, Bolivia, Australia and Kenya.

General manager of the expo's International Food Town eatery Wang Qingcheng said it had 64,000 customers a day and business was so brisk that they used 20 tons of rice, 40 tons of vegetables and 40 tons of pork and mutton in one day.

"We only had 25,000 customers a day even at peak time at the Kunming expo," Wang recalled.

Vice-Mayor Zhao said the city had taken pains to ensure the success of the expo and make the most of the holiday which runs from May 1 to 7.

The authorities had implemented a special traffic management plan and 6,200 police officers were patrolling in and around the venue, while a police helicopter observed from above.

Health and hygiene departments had assigned inspectors to monitor food preparation, drinking water hygiene and sanitation around the clock.

More than 1,000 janitorial staff and 500 volunteers were taking turns to clean up trash, said Zhao.

Shenyang was granted the right to host the expo by the Association of International Producers of Horticulture (AIPH) in September 2004. Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, is the only other Chinese city to host the expo.

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