"Live Green, Live Better," that's the theme of the Beijing Horticultural Exhibition, where Chinese President Xi Jinping made a keynote speech during the opening ceremony on Sunday with ecological environment preservation as his focus.

Read more:

A look at International Horticultural Expo 2019 site

President Xi's emphasis on environmental protection and ecological civilization started years ago.

In 2005, Xi, then secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, said during a visit to Anji County in east China's Zhejiang Province that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." 

He put the environment into a more significant position after he took office as head of state in 2013. 

Here's a pile-up of President Xi's key quotes on environmental protection since 2013 in reverse chronological order.