Petrochemical plants on Yangtze clean up their acts

Yichang city, Hubei province, has been striving to get rid of petrochemical plants along the banks of the Yangtze River since 2016 to help protect China's "mother river".

And it seems the efforts of the authorities have paid off over the past three years. Yichang's economy has started to recover after huge economic reforms, while the ecology of the Yangtze River is also improving.

By 2020, the city government plans to use four methods to tackle the problem of 134 petrochemical companies located within a kilometer of the river's banks - shut down, transform, relocate or switch to other industries. Fifty-two companies have finished the process while another 40 will follow suit this year.