The beautiful scenery of the "Terraced Flower Sea" in Nantong Zhou Ji green expo garden on July 25, 2018. Showcasing various flowers with different lines and color blocks, the Terraced Flower Sea is like the earth's "palette". It is estimated that the park has received more than two million visitors since it opened in early 2016. [Photo/nantong.gov.cn]

Zhou Ji Green Expo Garden in Nantong, Jiangsu province was approved as a national 4A level scenic spot and listed as a second provincial 4A class tourist attraction in 2018. So far Nantong is home to one 5A level and seven 4A level scenic spots.

Located in the eastern suburb of Nantong, Zhou Ji green expo garden first underwent construction in June 2012, and opened in February 2016. With a total investment of 300 million yuan ($43.8 million), this dreamy garden covers an area of 320,000 square meters, integrating plant display, popular science education, ecological leisure, catering and entertainment, tourism and shopping functions. It is also a unique comprehensive garden with a botanical theme in the Yangtze River delta.

The garden showcases more than 6,000 species of rare plants from all over the world, with up to 160,000 specimens. It offers visitors ten theme spots including a tropical fruit valley, tropical flowers and a rain forest museum, a sand plants museum, a lagerstroemia indica garden, and a terraced flower sea. It also hosts four leisure and recreation areas composed of plant exhibitions and marketing centers, a jungle cabin, a magic castle, and a children's dream jungle park. Nearly one million tourists have visited the garden since it opened.

In recent years, Nantong has focused on the construction of major cultural tourism projects as an important step in supporting the transformation and upgrading of the tourism industry. As a result, a group of tourist attractions, resorts, rural tourism areas and a new form of tourism industry have been promoted, significantly increasing the size of the industry. Currently there are 49 A-grade tourist spots, four provincial tourist resorts, three RV (recreational vehicle) campsites, five self-driving travelling bases, 11 industrial tourism demonstration sites and 83 rural tourism areas in Nantong.