Coal city gaining fruits from greener outlook

Shaking off its dependence on environmentally damaging industries such as coal mining, Liupanshui in Guizhou province has turned to new sectors and environmental restoration for sustainable growth, according to the city's mayor, Li Gang.

As a local "green" tradition, thousands of local officials go to the mountains to plant trees on the first working day after the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, said Li, also a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress, on the sidelines of the ongoing two sessions.

Li, who was born in 1972 and became the city's mayor in 2017, said: "Only 7.6 percent of the city's area was covered by forests in the 1980s, although it is a mountainous place. And particulate matter in the air was more than four times higher than the national standard during that period."