News
Impressive site inspection Tangshan, China.
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
The city of Tangshan, China applied to hold an A2/B1 international horticultural exhibition in 2016. In 1976 a very heavy earthquake destroyed a great part of the city with 240,000 casualties and many thousands injured. During the rebuild of the city a great park (South Lake) was established and industrial waste areas were cleaned. This created an eco-city of high environmental and nature standards with 7,3 million residents. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the earthquake the exhibition will be organised with the theme “Phoenix nirvana” which symbolizes the resurrection from the asses after the earthquake.
To view and inspect the exhibition site and to discuss the progress the city of Tangshan invited an AIPH team. Mr. Doeke Faber (AIPH), Mr. Shinya Wada (AIPH), Mr. Wang Dianfu (CFA), Mrs. Kong Haiyan (CFA), Mr. Zhang Yin Chao (CFA) and Mr. Sjaak Langeslag (AIPH) were kindly received by Mr. Chen Guoying, Mayor of Tangshan and Mr. Huang Huikang, Vice Mayor. Several other representatives of Tangshan municipal government and the organising committee attended and contributed to the meetings. Deputy Director Mr. Ge Huibo represented the Forestry Bureau of Hebei Province.
After the site visit and presentations regarding the lay out and many relevant aspects of the exhibition, several questions were asked by the inspection team members and suggestions were given. These regarded aspects like infrastructure, opening hours, sewage system, shops and other visitor facilities, internal transportation for visitors in relation to the size (over 500 ha of which 220 ha of water), phytosanitary import regulations, after-use of the exhibition site, soil characteristics, symposia and meetings for producers, involvement of youngsters and information about plant use for consumers.
Looking at the given answers and commitments, Mr. Faber concluded that Tangshan city is well under way with ecology, green living environment and sustainable use of water and energy and can be seen as an example to the world. The United Nations is of the same opinion as they granted Tangshan the Dubai International Award for the Best Practices to Improve Living Conditions. Also taking into account the ambition to increase ornamentals production from 1,400 hectares in 2010 to 16,000 hectares in the near future, Tangshan is an excellent location to hold an international horticultural exposition. It is shown that the staff that is involved in the exhibition activities is creative, enthusiastic and dedicated. The general impression and outline of the 2016 exhibition complies with the criteria and ideas of AIPH. Therefore the advice to the Council of AIPH will be positive with two remaining points of attention. The first is the necessity of an internal transportation system for visitors and the second is that this inspection visit is rather early to judge several topics and aspects of the exhibition in their final lay out. A second visit some years from now may be advisable.
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