The city will witness the fastest expansion of public green area this year.

It aims to complete new public green lands of some 1,300 hectares. The green area per capita will reach 7 square meters by year-end,officials with the municipal Green Land Administrative Bureau said.

It was announced last year that some 800 hectares of public green belts will be finished this year and the green area per capita will reach 6.5 square meters.The plan was however revised recently to accelerate the city's step of building itself into a state-level garden city,said Hu Yunhua,head of the bureau.

Thus the city will speed up its building of suburban forests,large-scale downtown parks and Ring-Road greenbelts this year,officials said.

Some one fourth of the city area will be covered with green lands by the year-end,they said.

( eastday.com March 13, 2002)