A total of 33 florists from 31 countries and regions competed in the 2019 World Flower Art Contest, held in Beijing from August 15 to 26, displaying the beauty of flower art.

Flower art is a way of observing life and capturing the beauty of flowers and trees in nature. Through creative creation and composition, flowers are arranged and combined to be more appealing and to express human emotions.

Mark Pampling, a contestant from Australia, made a combination of indigenous and exotic materials to reflect diverse cultural influences, heritage, and beauty of his homeland in his preliminary round work "Beautiful Homeland."

Mark said flowers can help people to remember and harness beauty in their hands.

"I wanted to use some Chinese traditional elements and combined them with Western floral design," said Chinese contestant Han Hai. In his preliminary round work, he was inspired by Chinese landscape painting. He designed the mountain with Cooper strips, expressed rivers with ink, and combined pine branches and flowers to show the beauty of China.

In the end, Mark Pampling won the champion of the contest. Chinese contestant Huang Zai, and Japanese contestant Taku Konishi won the second and third prize, respectively.

The contest is the first international flower art competition held during the International Horticultural Exhibition.