Landscape engineers in Beijing have developed new technologies to create a greener environment for the 2008 Olympic Games.

In July and August, Beijing is short of flowers due to the scorching sun but local authorities are aiming to turn the national capital into a city "shrouded in green and wreathed with flowers", Wednesday's Beijing News reports.

Science workers and technicians with the Beijing Municipal Gardening and Forestation Bureau said they have developed ways to enable thousands of flowers to prolong their florescence through the summer days, such as chrysanthemums, Chinese roses and other homegrown flowers.

They are also studying ways of transplanting green trees from forests in the suburbs to the downtown venues for the Olympic Games, including spraying powder to protect their roots and planting them in special containers.

The bureau is also carrying out a "green roof" project which involves planting green plants on the top of buildings no more than 12-story along the main avenues of Beijing and beside the Olympic venues.

According to the plan, it is expected that 80,000 to 100,000 square meters of roofs will have plants by the end of this year; by 2008, it will reach 300,000 square meters.

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2006)