Group ticket purchases for the 2014 Qingdao International Horticultural Exposition are available since Monday, following a ceremony organized by the expo executive committee in Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province.

The tickets are available at designated ticket sales agents, including 500 sales outlets around the city at branches of the Bank of Qingdao, China Post, the Xinhua bookstore and Liqun Group, and also at online ticket sales websites such as T3 dotcom. Only group booking is available for the time being.

The design of the tickets highlights the expo's theme, "From the earth, for the Earth", with square shapes depicting such elements as a mountain, the sea and the city, and also a representation of Qingdao's city flower and the expo's emblem and mascot, with the aim of conveying the relationship between human beings and nature.

The expo tickets are called "colorful keys", and express the idea that they open the door of horticultural gardens, leading people towards colorful nature and away from city life. The "colorful keys" also symbolize the Seven Luminaries in traditional Chinese culture: the sun, the moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn.