BEIJING — The China National Botanical Garden was officially inaugurated in Beijing on April 18, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said.

With a planned area of 600 hectares, the national botanical garden builds upon the work of the Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Botanical Garden.

The national botanical garden has more than 30,000 kinds of plants and 5 million representative plant specimens from five continents.

The garden is a national plant diversity protection base, and also an important symbol of the country's sustainable development level, the administration said.

To strengthen biodiversity protection, China is accelerating the construction of a system of national botanical gardens in places like Beijing and Guangzhou.

The State Council, or the cabinet, approved the establishment of the national botanical garden in Beijing in December 2021.