The 24th China (Shouguang) International Vegetable Sci-Tech Fair kicked off in Shouguang, Shandong province on April 20, aiming to create immersive experiences for visitors from China and abroad, while displaying items in such fields as horticultural technologies, planting models, new vegetable varieties, and modern agricultural equipment.

The 24th China (Shouguang) International Vegetable Sci-Tech Fair opens in Shouguang, Shandong province on April 20. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Themed on "Green, Technology, and Future", the fair covers an exhibition area of 450,000 square meters with 1,000 indoor and outdoor booths.

It boasts themed exhibition halls, fruit-picking gardens, high-yield planting areas in greenhouses, the Shouguang Vegetable Museum, leisure farms, and outdoor exhibitions that specialize in vegetable seedling cultivation, standard production, processing and sales, technical training, exchanges, and tourism.

A giant pumpkin is seen at the exhibition hall. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

More than 2,000 varieties of vegetables are on display, including about 400 new varieties, such as tomatoes, Zilong peppers, eggplants, and huge winter melons.

Immersive night tours integrating sightseeing, entertainment, and shopping experiences are also scheduled to be launched during the event.

Since 2000, the vegetable fair has been successfully held for 23 consecutive years. By relying on the vegetable industry's advantages in Shouguang, the fair serves as a window to display advanced technology and planting modes within vegetable industry from home and abroad, and has attracted more than 30 million visitors and raked in a total trade volume of over 200 billion yuan ($29 billion).

The exhibition hall at the vegetable fair attracts crowds of visitors. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]