'Acid rain city' cleans up its environment

Liuzhou, an industrial center in Southwest China once riddled with acid rain, is transforming itself from a resource-consuming model to being driven by ideas and the environment.

The city, located in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, emerged as an industrial power and automotive manufacturing hub in the 1990s, but had trouble with industrial emissions that harmed the environment and caused acid rain.

"Vegetables and fruits - grapes, for example - couldn't survive in the natural environment, as their leaves would be eroded by the acid rain. Bicycles would quickly become corroded if parked outside," recalled Zhao Fu, vice-director of Liuzhou's environmental protection bureau.