Longing for Spring

by Lin Yuan

“The seeds from the Expo have been planted at home，” proclaimed one Beijing resident， echoing the sentiments of many Expo attendees.“The whole family enjoyed the planting from beginning to end， and were extremely excited for harvest season.”

The curtain fell on the 9th China （Beijing） International Garden Expo on November 17， 2013， ending an eight-month Family Gardening Contest themed “Bringing Gardening into Daily Life.” The campaign， launched in March 2013， was sponsored by the Beijing Garden Expo Administration Center. It consists of two parts： a family gardening contest and a family garden design contest. The Expo was organized to promote ideas of urban gardening and creating a more beautiful liv- ing space， with hopes of encouraging Beijing families to grow closer by planting together to improve the citys environment.

The event attracted over 100，000 floral enthusiasts from ten cities， including Beijing， Shanghai and Guangzhou， who left with seeds， and nearly 10，000 articles related to home gardening were shared through the Expos official Weibo （Chinese version of Twitter）.

Throughout the Expo， seeds have been available once a week， and 24 themed activities were presented at local communities， residential areas with heavy foreign populations， suburban townships and villages， nursing homes， markets， farms， and other places which are active in the greenery movement.

Many amateur gardening enthusiasts transformed their homes by planting – making their balconies veritable jungles by using disposal paper cups to grow seedlings and encouraging their children to join the gardening.

Qiao Xiaopeng， deputy director of the Publicity Department under the Beijing Garden Expo Administration Center， joined hands with participants in placing seeds into giant hourglass， which will count down the days until next spring when the seeds will be planted in the Expo garden.

“This campaign has come to an end， but the concept of making our homes and lives more beautiful is already deeply rooted in our hearts，” remarked Qiao. “This is still the beginning more than an end： more and more people will join us in gardening， and Beijing will see blue skies and crystal clear water.”