Enjoy a grand party in the Oriental Leisure Metropolis

04-22-2006 3:41 EST (0148 GMT)

Visitors who come to Hangzhou over the next few months will be surprised as well as delighted to find themselves among thousands of others who have taken time out of their break-neck schedule to smell the flowers.

The scenic capital of Zhejiang Province is throwing the whole world a grand leisure party from today on.

Co-sponsored by the World Leisure Organization, relevant national ministries, the Zhejiang provincial government as well as the Hangzhou municipal government and other related organizations, the 2006 Hangzhou World Leisure Expo will be held from April 22 to October 22.

The Xiaoshan district government and the Hangzhou Songcheng Group will jointly organize various activities at the Expo.

The six-month-long Expo will host more than 200 exhibitions, festivals, as well as many cultural, sports, economic and sightseeing activities.

It will feature important events such as the World Leisure Expo Garden Display, the Folk Garden Display, Commodities Exhibition, the World Leisure Congress, World Leisure Summit, the World Leisure Prize awarding ceremony, and World Leisure Education and Training, as well as the China Hangzhou West Lake Carnival.

Most of the events will be held in the main exhibition and conference halls and leisure venues in Hangzhou and ten other nearby cities in Zhejiang Province.

Notably, Hangzhou has constructed a Holiday Tour Arena near West Lake, a World Leisure Park and an Oriental Cultural Park, especially for the expo.

The World Tourism Organization, the World Travel and Tourism Council, the Asia-Pacific Travel Association, and the International Council of Tourism Partners have all shown great interest in the expo.

One hundred international tourism destinations, enterprises, organizations and theme parks will establish individual display halls during the event.

The participants can all choose a day each as their "City Day" or "Promotion Day" during the Expo. A series of themed activities, including display of the cities' cultures, promotion of tourism and leisure resources, flag-raising ceremony and so on will be held on the given day.

More than 40 foreign cities, including Leeds of the United Kingdom, Gard of France, Recife of Brazil and also many Chinese cities are among them.

The theme of the Expo is "Leisure Changes People's Lives"

To achieve overall success under the sponsorship of the provincial government, the expo will be operated by business enterprises according to market principles, with participation from the public at large.

As the first World Leisure Expo, the event aims to promote communications and publicity of leisure activities worldwide, especially in developing countries.

Source: China Daily

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