BEIJING (DNA) – Prime Minister Imran Khan along with other world leaders participated in the opening ceremony of Beijing International Horticultural Expo and visited Pakistan Pavilion here on Sunday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the six-month-long expo and sought cooperation in face of environmental challenges during his address.

The prime minister also visited Pakistan Pavilion set up at Asian Garden of the expo. He was briefed about the exhibition plan and activities of Pakistan Pavilion.

Pakistan will take the exhibition as a platform for demonstrating its newest horticulture achievements and promoting tourism as well as making horticulture and agriculture exchanges.

Pakistan was one of the first countries to confirm the participation in the Expo, which fully reflected the friendly relations between China and Pakistan The expo will run from April 29 to October 7 at the foot of the Great Wall in the Chinese capital’s Yanqing District.

Themed “Live Green, Live Better,” the expo is poised to impress an expected number of 16 million visitors from home and abroad with a huge collection of plants, flowers and eye-catching pavilions as well as ideas for green development.

More than 110 countries and international organizations as well as over 120 non-official exhibitors have confirmed participation.

This is the second time for China to hold such a high-level horticulture expo. The first such event was held in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming in 1999.

China will showcase 34 gardens at the exhibition, where visitors can enjoy horticulture arrangements to the backdrop of China’s diverse landscape designs.

The district has trained up to 200,000 people, including volunteers, hotel and restaurant staff members and security guards, for the two events.

The 162-day expo covering an area of 503 hectares will display the latest achievements in floriculture and fruit and vegetable farming.