Wang Guangying, vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, and Zhou Tienong, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, joined other participants at the opening ceremony.

Also present were leading officials and representatives of 10 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and guests from Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.

Over 1,400 artists staged a grand performance at the opening ceremony. Forty-four floats paraded along Kunming's major avenues which were decorated with 3.5 million pots of flowers.

A flower fair also opened today, attracting 61 flower enterprises from 12 countries and regions.

Yunnan, known as the "Kingdom of Plants and Flowers", produces 1.1 billion flowers in 2,500 species annually, accounting for 40 percent of the country's total.

(People’s Daily 09/28/2000)