The Guiyang municipal government made an important decision in March this year to build Guiyang into China's first cyclical economic and ecological city. In April, Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration Xie Zhenhua recommended this project as an international cooperation program at the Conference of Environmental Ministers of China, Japan and Korea held in Seoul. In May, the State Environmental Protection Administration formally ratified Guiyang as pilot city for the construction of cyclical economic eco-city.

To most of the public, "cyclical economic eco-city" is an unfamiliar concept. A people.com.cn reporter interviewed Guiyang Mayor Sun Guoqiang on the project, and the interview began with the interpretation of this concept.

Sun explained that the cyclical economy is an economic mode with a feature of being in line with the natural eco-system substances' cycle. At present, countries all over the world are implementing a sustainable development strategy, as well as striving to find a road for the simultaneous promotion of economic development, environmental protection and social advancement. According to the worldwide experience drawn from many years of practice, the cyclical economy is different from the traditional economic development mode. It can effectively solve many environmental problems and support the sustainable development strategy for rapid economic development in the future.

To construct the cyclical economic eco-city, the idea of a cyclical economy should be adopted as the guiding principle, and measures related to clean production, eco-industry and eco-agriculture etc. are integrated to form a systematic strategy, which can adjust the layout of urban space structure and readjust and optimize the economic structure. The best result -- less exploitation, more utilization and less discharge -- will be realized via the substances cycling-use among and inside the city's sub-systems, the efficient utilization of power and the full share of information, to decrease the impact of economic activities on the natural environment to the lowest level possible.

Pointing to the advantages of Guiyang in building a cyclical economic eco-city, Sun said it would be an explorative systematic project, which could be analyzed in the following aspects:

First, several provinces, cities, villages and towns in China are undertaking ecological construction, but most of this highlights the content of the natural ecological system. Research within China on the eco-city is mostly concentrated on such single sub-systems as ecology and urban planning, but far less on the ecological urban construction from the angle of the cyclical economy. The eco-city of Guiyang is to be constructed in the cyclical economic mode involving infrastructure facilities, industry, agriculture, energy, consumption and architecture.

Second, Guiyang lies in the inland, less developed part of western China, and, comparatively speaking, its ideas and concepts need to open wider. The city is short of talented people and technology. Furthermore, Guiyang lies in the central area of the Guizhou Plateau, where the feature of karst topography is the most typical, covering 85 percent of 8,034 square km (3,101 square miles) of the land. Additionally, as the provincial capital, Guiyang is the center of the politics, economy, culture and education of Guizhou Province. Developing the cyclical economy and building an eco-city in such a place should have its own obvious features and important significance.

Third, to expand the space for development and improve the old city's structural layout, the Jinyang New District in Guiyang is under construction, ratified by the State Council. According to the idea of the cyclical economy, the old city proper and the new city proper, set in a "twin centers" mode, are closely connected to develop mutually. The Jinyang New District has been planned and will be constructed in accordance with the idea of a "zero discharge system." This means that, during the processes of production and consumption, there will be incorporated a "resources-product-recycled resource" substances cycling-use procedure, which can decrease waste discharge to somewhere close to "zero."

Sun Guoqiang summed up the major content of the cyclical economic eco-city in seven aspects:

Urban infrastructure facilities and the public cultural facilities. This will include road and street construction and improvement; enhancement of water supply and drainage as well as network pipe construction; improvement in the supply of clean energy such as electricity and gas; sewage treatment plant and garbage treatment plant construction; increase in green areas; improvement in public communications and facilities; public entertainment and cultural facilities construction.

Traditional industry and newly-emerging industries. This will include readjustment of the phosphorus chemical and coal chemical industry; developing hi-tech sectors such as the electronics industry, IT, new materials industry; modernization of the traditional Chinese medicine industry and promotion of the bio-pharmaceutical industry; prevention and control of environmental pollution and developing environmental-friendly industry; promoting contact and intergrowth among industries; and promoting clean production.

Ecological construction and eco-agriculture. This will include the return of farmland to forest (grass) and conserving water and soil, building the second round-the-city forest belt, developing a courtyard economy, promoting agricultural and side-line products as well as pollution-free organic agricultural products.

Clean energy such as electricity and gas. This will include promoting and encouraging the use of electricity, developing gas in line with local conditions and devoting major efforts to developing marsh gas in the countryside.

Healthy consumption. Enhance the public's healthy consumption awareness, and promote pollution-free products.

Ecological housing. Make the environmental-friendly construction planning the norm, and developing and constructing ecological housing.

Laws and regulations. Enact and improve the legal system to support and guarantee the cyclical economic eco-city construction in Guiyang, plus ongoing research and adopting a scientifically advanced administrative mode.

Sun Guoqiang noted that realizing the goal of building up the cyclical economic eco-city will take 15 to 20 years. Three cyclical systems including industry, agriculture and society are going to be set up gradually in the city construction, and with the three systems being combined organically by the streams of substances, energy and information in the city, an operational system of the cyclical economic eco-city will be built up in Guiyang.

He added that the goal of Guiyang's construction is striving for harmony between human beings and nature and building Guiyang into a top class human residence city.

(from 人民日报[People's Daily], translated by Zhang Tingting, July 17, 2002)