JINAN-- An international peony conference began Friday in East China's Shandong province.

The World Peony's Conference 2019 is being held in the city of Heze, with hundreds of varieties of peony flowers on display. Thousands of tourists, business people and flower experts have arrived in Heze to enjoy the event.

A major forum and four sub-forums will be held during the event, scheduled to last until Sunday. A peony industry expo will also be held.

It is the first international peony conference on such a big scale, and 17 famous experts from a variety of countries are in attendance, said Liu Hong, with the China Flower Association.

"The experts and authorities of related companies will discuss about peony growth and peony-related products at the conference," Liu said.

Heze was named by the China Flower Association as "capital of peony in China" in 2012. Currently, the city has 32,400 hectares of peony plantation, and churns out 25,000 tonnes of peony seed oil annually. Last year, output value of the peony industry exceeded 8 billon yuan ($1.2 billion) in the city.