Chiang Mai Flower Festival 2012 kicks off

CHIANG MAI, Feb 3 (TNA) - The annual Flower Festival in Thailand's northern resort Chiang Mai (เชียงใหม่) Province kicked off on Friday. Many roads and public parks in downtown Chiang Mai are now decorated with colorful flowers to mark the Chiang Mai Flower Festival, which has been annually organised in the northern Lanna Thai city for over three decades to promote Chiang Mai as a province of beautiful flowers and to present its long and glorious history with a wide range of activities, including floats and a beauty pageant. A highlight is a contest of flowering and decorative plants, including desert roses priced as high as one million baht per pair, as well as a variety of orchids and Thai orchids which have resulted from conservation efforts by over 700 local orchid growers who have generated nearly 200 million baht annual revenues for the northern Thai resort city. The Chiang Mai Flower Festival will continue until February 5, with its opening ceremony set at the Nawarat Bridge on Saturday morning, with a parade moving from the bridge to the Nong Buak Had public park, where beautiful plants are put on display to impress international visitors.(TNA)