BEIJING, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The 12th China International Garden Expo will be held from December to May 2019 in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the expo organizer announced.

A total of 44 Chinese cities and 19 from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and countries along the Belt and Road will participate, it said.

The event, the first time to be held in an ethnic minority region, will be jointly hosted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the people's government of Guangxi.

China has made great achievement in greening its cities over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up. The green area in cities has increased from 110,000 hectares in 1981 to over 2.1 million hectares in 2017, and the per capita area of green parks increased from 1.5 square meters to 14.01 square meters during the period.