SHENZHEN has started a facelift of its urban environment by staging flower beds in eight locations, including Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center and Shennan Boulevard, and decorating some landscapes and landmark buildings with night lights to welcome the 19th International Botanical Congress (IBC) to be held in the city from Sunday to July 29.

At the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, the main venue of the congress, a dimensional flower bed featuring plant modeling will be staged at the main entrance to showcase achievements in life, science and environment. On the seven roads nearby, various plant species of different colors will be planted to form a flora sea around the main venue.

In the night light landscaping, five light murals will flash across the tall buildings in the Futian CBD, including Galaxy Center, Excellence Time Square and CTS (Hong Kong) Building. The light landscaping will also decorate six overpasses and footbridges, including Huanggang Overpass on Shennan Boulevard, Jintian Overpass and Yitian Overpass on Binhe Boulevard.

A total of 122 projects in four categories, namely greenery improvement, landscape lighting, road surface renovation and urban environment facelift, will be completed Thursday.

The goal of building the cleanest city in China has been listed as a key project for improving the city’s quality. Improving the environment in urban villages has been a long-term project.

This year, the city plans to complete facelifts of 281 villages by adding more cultural and historical elements to the old villages.

The city has launched actions to clear illegal street vendors who occupy pedestrian roads. By the end of June, the urban administration authorities had cleared 342,701 illegal traders and dismantled 14,436 illegal temporary sheds. (Han Ximin)