Clean and green, regional center courts investment

When queried about Yinchuan, a northwestern inland city, most Chinese people would probably picture rows of dilapidated steel-grey terraces against a landscape of yellow sand.

That might be true of a movie set outside the city, but visitors arriving at the capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region are often surprised to find a clean, foliage-covered lake city.

That first impression is important, said a spokesman for the local government - clean and green not only benefits locals but also helps court investment, he said.

So local authorities have increased efforts in the city's sanitation and management.

They now employ professional cleaning companies to remove graffiti and illegal handbills pasted on public facilities.

To ease traffic congestion in part caused by illegal use of roads by street stalls, the city government has designated times and places where vendors can sell.

Some roads are used by vendors only in early morning or at night markets to help ease daytime traffic.

The government has also started programs to increase local environmental awareness and fight littering.

More volunteers now help clean the city, sweeping up cigarette butts and other refuse.

The Ministry of Health noted Yinchuan's efforts by naming it a national sanitary city in 2007.

Planting trees, arid climate

The city in the dry northwest faces challenges in turning green. Its average annual rainfall is less than 200 mm - far less than the area's evaporation rate of 1,200 to 1,800 mm.

In spite of natural disadvantages, authorities have not given up their goal of "building Yinchuan into a city in a forest", the government said.

Since 2001 a campaign to "adopt trees" has encouraged locals to help greening efforts by planting and caring for trees or paying to sponsor trees.

People name the trees they have adopted to express personal wishes on special occasions like weddings, birthdays and holidays.

The city's urban green coverage rate was 36 percent in 2007 with 8 sq m of green public land for every resident.

Yinchuan was named a national garden city last year by then the Ministry of Construction, now renamed as the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Wetlands conservation

Due to population growth and urban expansion, Yinchuan's wetland areas shrank sharply to 32,000 hectares from 67,000 hectares a half century ago.

The environmental price the city paid as a result gave local authorities a serious lesson.

The city's natural humidifier, wetlands, are crucial to protecting the ecological system, especially in China's dry northwestern regions, the city government said.

Lake conservation and restoration deeply concern the city government, so it began reclamation projects in 2002.

Efforts combine flood control and expansion of wetlands. The Xihu Lake project has expanded to 20,000 mu (1,333 hectares) from 12,000 mu (800 hectares), to make it the biggest natural lake in Ningxia.

The local government has also increased investment in water-saving infrastructure facilities and industrial technological innovation.

Since 2003 the city's gross domestic product has continued to grow as water consumption declined.

Yinchuan won an award in 2006 as a model for environmental improvement due to its lake conservation and restoration projects. It was named as a national water-conservation city in 2007.

(China Daily 07/02/2008 page24)