The World Horticultural Expo has been held in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province, since 1999. The Expo has brought huge opportunities and economic benefits to the local floral industry, as well as boosting the local infrastructure and tourism.

The total revenue of the local floral industry has grown by more than 100 times over the past 20 years.

Now serving as China's largest flower trading market, the Dounan Flower Market grasped the opportunity to grow thanks to the World Horticultural Expo. Guan Chao is a flower vendor who opened his flower booth at the Dounan Flower Market in 1998. He recalled that the market was small at the time and his booth was only two square meters in size. The expo was an eye opener for Guan which also brought fame to Kunming.

An international flower auction and trading center opened at the Dounan market in 2002 and flowers began to be auctioned there. After Guan participated in the auction, his business grew leaps and bounds, with sales volume increased dozens of times.

"At least 100,000 flowers were auctioned at the market. I couldn't have imagined that my business could grow into such a scale," Guan said.

The total planting area for flowers expanded 65 times from the initial size over the past two decades, with total revenue being 111 times of the original. The industry creates 52.6 billion yuan in revenue each year. Dounan has become Asia's largest flower market, with a thousand tonnes of flowers transported throughout China, and 50 plus countries and regions.