Tiananmen flower basket completed

The construction of a huge flower basket arrangement themed "Blessings to the Motherland" was completed early Thursday morning in Tiananmen Square.

The traditional annual decorative work for the coming National Day holiday in October includes the flower basket arrangement in the square－which a team built in five hours starting at midnight Wednesday－and 10 flower terraces along Chang'an Avenue, the Beijing Forestry and Parks Bureau said.

"Most parts of the flower basket were assembled outside of the square," said a bureau official in charge of the work. "The main task was to put the upper part of the flowers precisely onto the basket pedestal, which was done by two cranes."

The main flower arrangement in the center of the square, an annual National Day decoration since 2011, is 18 meters high this year. The base of its container is 45 meters in diameter.

"The flower basket can resist winds up to the force of level 10," said Liu Mingxing, head of the bureau's afforestation division. "The shape of the base this year is a sunflower－a reference to the people's unity."

Other floral decorations will surround the basket and be elsewhere on the square to create the celebratory atmosphere of National Day.

Tiananmen Square will have 5,050 square meters of floral decorations, Liu said.

All the work is expected to be finished by Sept 25, he said.

Chen Ju, deputy chief engineer at Beijing Florascape, said, "The whole decoration project will use more than 200 types of plants, imported and local."

She said up to 15 types of imported flowers will be used for the first time.

Outside of the square, 10 flower terraces bearing messages of best wishes to the country and showing the nation's achievements will be displayed along Chang'an Avenue.

Flowers covering a total area of 7,000 square meters between Jianguomen and Fuxingmen along Chang'an Avenue will contribute to the celebratory atmosphere, according to the bureau.

The 10 flower terraces along Chang'an Avenue have adopted different types of flowers to showcase the country's development with various themes, said Yan Hongfei, a designer from the Beijing Institute of Landscape and Traditional Architectural Design and Research.