Beijing aims to become a world-leading ecological city within the
seven years leading up to the
2008 Olympic
Games, in order to fulfill the city's "Green Olympics" promise,
according to government officials.
Thanks to the progress of tree planting campaigns in recent years,
the city's three green initiatives - mountain forests, plain
forests and urban forests - have begun to take shape, Song Xiyou,
director of Beijing Forestry Bureau said.
According to the bureau's statistics released on Wednesday, Beijing
added 2,866 hectares of green land this year to its urban forest
areas and its urban green belt, which surrounds the city's urban
areas.
More than 75 percent of the new green land is covered by trees. The
survival rate of the trees and bushes planted this spring is above
94 percent.
Beijing's urban green belt covers a territory of 93.5 km. By the
end of 2007, the city's vegetation coverage will be greatly
increased, with tree coverage in mountainous areas reaching 70
percent, on plains exceeding 30 percent and in urban isolation
green belt reaching 60 percent, according to Song.
In
the past two years, Beijing's green areas expanded greatly, with
more than 5,500 hectares of new green land created - almost the
total amount of green areas in the period.
For many Beijing residents, dreams of living in a green community
are becoming a reality.
"We will spare no effort to add more green space to the capital,
and have set a target to build more gardens in downtown areas,"
Song said.
Governments at all levels in the city injected more than 700
million yuan (US$84 million) to increase its green space this year,
which doubles the money provided last year.
To
improve the environment in rural areas around the capital, Beijing
municipal government launched a tree planting project late last
year, aiming to transform areas along five rivers and 10
expressways into green havens.
More than 100 million yuan (US$12 million) has been invested into
the project, expected to be finished within three to four years,
Song said.
(China
Daily October 19, 2001)