Northwest China's Qinghai provincial authorities have urged all road builders to protect the pastures bordering the roads they are to build.

At all road construction sites along the No. 214 national highway, workers are working hard to remove the grass surface before construction begins, and will replant it alongside the completed road.

As Qinghai has built a growing number of roads in recent years, great importance is attached to protection of the roadside environment.

Located on the unique Tibet-Qinghai Plateau, Qinghai province has a very fragile and delicate ecosystem due to lack of oxygen, according to local officials.

They say the ecological balance of the area will be very hard to recover if destructed and, therefore, measures must be taken to protect the pastures and other green spaces found along the roadsides.

So far all the "relocated" grass is doing well.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2002)