After achieving its goal of a 50 percent greenery rate in Beijing as part of a pledge for 2008 Olympic Games, the capital is now turning its attention to the sports venues themselves.

 

Major forestation efforts will be made in the Olympic Green, a theme park specially created for the anticipated event, around sports venues, and along roads that connect the venues and downtown, said Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan.

 

Wang, who is also head of the Capital Greenery Commission, recently revealed the plans at a meeting to mobilize as many people as possible to take part in the greenery campaign.

 

In China, people aged between 11 and 60, are encouraged to plant several trees every spring.

 

During the coming month, the capital is expected to witness a climax in tree planting by people from all walks of life, said Wang Sumei, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Gardening and Forestry Bureau.

 

She told a news briefing yesterday that around 200 government officials at the ministerial level will plant trees along Yongding River this weekend.

 

It is estimated that around 9,000 hectares of bare land in Beijing will be covered with trees this spring.

 

The city's green coverage rate was 50.5 percent by the end of last year, achieving the goal set for 2008 three years ahead of schedule, Wang Sumei said, adding that the rate was just 16.6 percent in the early 1980s.

 

She said the Olympic Green will have a vast vegetation area of 680 hectares. At present, about 200 hectares of land have been planted with various kinds of trees, including gingko, pine, peach and willow.

 

Greenery projects related to the Olympic venues will be finished by the end of this year, according to the gardening and forestry bureau.

 

Efforts will also be made in building a "green wall" to rein in the sandstorm menace that chokes the city every spring, Wang added.

 

Over the past two decades, more than 156 million trees have been voluntarily planted throughout the city by ordinary people.

 

(China Daily March 24, 2006)