Five million flowers are set to be planted around the venues in the Olympic Green, covering an area of up to 100,000 square meters.
Originating from Java, the flame nettle is one of the 20 most commonly used Olympic flowers, and it's one of the major flowers to form the auspicious cloud-shaped flower beds of the Olympic Green. Flame nettle sells for 2 yuan per pot. [Yang Jie/Chinadaily.com.cn] |
“We use automatic sprinklers to water flowers in the airport,” said Zhou.
Wherever automatic sprinklers are possible, flower watering can be decreased to once a week from the current every two or three days, which will save water and reduce traffic, said Zhou.
A total of 6,000 flowerbeds will be in place at T2 and T3 as well as the Airport Highway.
Mixed response
Most Chinese are surprised at the large amount of flowers needed for Olympics, compared to their foreign counterparts when asked how they feel about the idea of decking out Olympics venues with flowers.
Salvatore Miranda, an Italian writer who is married to a Chinese woman, says it’s understandable. “The Olympics are like a stage where countries can show their power. The western countries have had their time and now it’s China’s turn.”
Charlotte Foucaut, a French woman who came to China a year ago and has been teaching in a Chinese college in a Beijing suburb, thinks the idea of having flowers is great from an aesthetic point of view. But she said, “If it threatens other flower species or if it represents some kind of threat of any kind to the environment or if it uses too much water then the answer is a huge NO.”
Zhang Fangfang, a Chinese software engineer working with a Chinese IT company, said 40 million flowers is not a small number. Yet considering Beijing has a tradition to deck the city with flowers during such holidays as the National Day holiday and May Day holiday, she thinks that having flowers for the Olympics is just a continuation of the tradition. And the Games is no ordinary holiday, it’s huge, so it’s natural it needs more flowers.
Huang Qiliang, a Chinese interpreter working with the Official Broadcaster for the Olympics, said the large number of flowers is a huge waste of resources. “However, because not all citizens can be involved into the Games, smelling the flowers is a big celebration for them.” He wishes the flowers would be given to citizens for free after the Games.
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