Shanghai, China's leading industrial and commercial center, has been busy growing more trees and adding more turfs along roadsides in a bid to turn itself into an international garden-like metropolis.

By the year 2007, the per capita public green area will be increased to 11 square meters in Shanghai and the forest cover will also rise to 37 percent, said an official from the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Afforestation.

According to the official, workers have been organized to grow 287 hectares of grassland and will add another 400 hectares in the city's downtown areas within the year.

In the first four months of the year, the city added 88 hectares of public green land in its downtown areas, said the official.

The city is also building a 400-meter-wide green belt through its suburbs, which will serve as the city's outer ring road.

By the end of the year, the per capita public green land in the city's downtown areas will amount to nine square meters and the forest cover will reach 35 percent.

Shanghai has been chosen to host the World Expo in 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2003)