One year before the 2014 Qingdao International Horticultural Expo, a countdown ceremony took place on April 25, in Qingdao. [Photo/Xu Chongde]

One year before the 2014 Qingdao International Horticultural Expo, a countdown ceremony took place on April 25, in Qingdao, a coastal city of East China’s Shandong province, to mark the final preparations for this event.

Scheduled to run April 25, 2014, to Oct 25, 2014, the expo will be the most magnificent international event to take place in the city since the 2008 Olympic sailing games.

So far, major building constructions and greening projects have been completed, and the expo will begin trial operations in October. The six-month event is expected to attract tens of millions of visitors.