One of the leading global horticultural exhibitions, Expo 2016 Antalya, is about to open in matter of days for tourists from Turkey and abroad and has sold more than 1 million season tickets and one day entry cards. Expo 2016 Antalya tickets continue to sell at malls in Antalya and online at www.expo2016.org.tr.
The Expo will last up until October on a 112 hectare exhibition site, where more than 40 countries are expected to participate.
On April 22, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will take part in the opening ceremony of the exhibition themed “Flowers and Children,” in the city by the Mediterranean Sea.
Inside the exhibition site there are several ambitious gardens, including a 3,150 square meter Chinese garden named “Moon’s Jewel” and a 1,200 square meter Japanese garden. China and Japan are two countries with some of the oldest gardening cultures in the world. Chinese garden project manager Meng Qian Wang said China had a horticultural history more than 4,000 years old. Meng Qian Wang said the garden to be exhibited in Antalya took its inspiration from gardens of Suzhou, one of the country’s oldest cities, known as China’s Venice.
The Japanese garden’s project manager Takeo Fujimoto told Anadolu Agency that the garden they started in Oct. 2015 will be ready next week. Fujimoto said they tried to replicate Japan’s nature in the garden. “We created rocks, green areas and waterfalls specific to Japan,” he said. His team created artworks and lighthouses with bamboo trees that came from Japan. To symbolize Turkish-Japan friendship, he said his team had used flowers grown in Turkey. Fujimoto said the sakura tree was one of the key components in Japanese gardens. “Sakura is a kind of a cherry tree that bears no fruits. This tree symbolizes the start of life, in other words, spring, as well as the inevitable end.”
It is expected that millions of tourists from both Turkey and abroad will visit the gardens and enjoy cultural and artistic activities of EXPO 2016 Antalya, where national and international congresses, panels, meetings and seminars will be also organized.
