Over the past two years, Shandong has seen great achievements in landscaping, with its 20 cities already recognized as national-class garden cities, according to statistics from the province’s landscaping and gardening conference, held in Weifang on May 25th.

"The landscaping efforts Shandong made during these years have greatly improved people’s living environment and contributed a lot to the province’s energy-saving and emissions-reducing initiatives,” said Guo Zhaoxin, vice governor of Shandong.

Last year Shandong spent 14.57 billion yuan in landscaping and gardening, a 43.4 percent increase since 2008. This financial effort has seen 14474 hectares of area changed into green land, sending the green area rate in Shandong’s urban districts up to 36.49 percent.

Chief among the efforts Shandong made in landscaping was the 7th China International Garden and Flower Expo held from September 22, 2009 to May 8th this year. This gardening gala saw 90 cities from 23 countries and regions participate, with 108 outdoor gardens built in all.

This year Shandong will focus on building gardening pilots in each city to bring Chinese landscaping to a higher level of energy efficiency and ecological sustainability than has ever been conceived before by mankind.