The Beijing International Horticultural Expo will end next week, but the event is seeing an increasing number of visitors during the week-long National Day holiday. Apart from a huge collection of plants, flowers and eye-catching pavilions, home-grown cultural and creative products are also attracting a lot of attention.

People came to the expo to see rare plants and architecture from around the globe. But the fair has much more to offer. It also showcases the concepts that allow people to live closer to nature and to their cultural roots. The expo also showcases creative and cultural products from Beijing, and they're making heads turn. 

Life-like Peking opera dolls are among the most popular souvenirs, covering a wide range of classic characters, including Yang Guifei, one of the Four Beauties of ancient China, Bai Suzhen from the folk legend "The White Snake," and the Monkey King from "Journey to the West." 

Tian Juan, who's in charge of the Peking Opera doll booth, said that: "It's an updated version of the traditional silk doll, in old Beijing style. We stay true to the make-up and the costume of the original model, but replaced the silk with cheaper materials like plaster and plastic, so the doll is more enduring and can make different postures." 

Here visitors can get creative, and dye a handkerchief with the colors from different plants and flowers, like Chinese people did in ancient times. 

"I had a lot of fun doing this, experimenting with different plants. The green prints comes from the fennel, the yellow from the chrysanthemum and the purple from this wild flower," a student who experienced the plants dying process told CGTN.

While the different themed pavilions offer a detailed look into what the country or region has to offer, the exhibition gardens outside bring people closer to nature. 

For example, the Hunan garden was designed like a miniature village hidden in a deep mountain, where the mist-covered pond, grasslands, farmland and wooden houses are merged into one poetic picture.  

After seeing different gardens from around the country, some visitors say it makes them want to go and explore more regions of China. 

One visitor told CGTN that: "I would like to visit Yunnan in the future, because I like the atmosphere in Dali very much. The expo is a great opportunity to see landscapes of regions and their products. In the case of Yunnan, the exhibit is very much related to nature and that's what I want to experience more, in addition to local cuisine." 

Visitors can also enjoy diverse activities focusing on different Chinese cities and provinces, as well as performances, displays of intangible cultural heritage, and handicrafts with ethnic characteristics.