Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong Province, will get a big facelift in the next couple of years thanks to a large capital injection from the municipal government into new garden projects.

The municipal government aims to increase the amount of green space to an area of 119 square kilometers by 2006, said Wang Linsheng, deputy Party secretary of Guangzhou Urban Planning and Gardening Bureau, at a press conference yesterday.

The Municipal Urban Planning and Gardening Bureau, sub-bureau in the city's 10 districts, and the Municipal Forestry Bureau will be responsible for the gigantic project.

The planning and gardening bureau alone will initiate 199 horticultural and tree planting projects in the coming couple of years, increasing lawn space by 33 square kilometers with a capital input of 2.90 billion yuan (US$349.40 million).

And the bureau will pour an investment of 600 million yuan (US$72 million) for 78 projects covering a area of 703 hectares this year.

Horticultural and tree-planting projects to be undertaken include ecological parks, squares, urban trunk entrances and exits, downtown lawns, riverside lawns, and theme parks.

The municipal government has, in the new landscape planning program, paid every attention to the old urban areas where parks and lawns are comparatively sparse, the official said.

The city aims to raise the vegetated public land rate to more than 38 per cent in urban areas in 2006, a gorgeous facelift to back the city's bid to host the Asian Games in 2010, he said.

"Visitors will be impressed by the city's beautiful landscape from the very moment they set foot on Guangzhou," he said.

The city kicked off the new urban landscape program last September and the urban planning and gardening bureau had completed 31 horticultural and tree-planting projects covering a space of 427,000 square meters by the end of 2003.

Guangzhou has long been nicknamed " the city of flowers " for the year-around blossoms.

The municipal government expects its latest efforts to reinforce the city's image as a flower city.

Guangzhou has won several awards from international organizations for the ever-improving environment.

(China Daily April 23, 2004)