Looking back at 2008, an eventful year that witnessed a massive snow disaster, the deadly May 12 earthquake, the success of Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, and a worldwide financial tsunami, "green" was a keyword that has run through almost every major event. 

Northwest China's Gansu Province has made an investment of more than 360 million in improving urban and rural infrastructure construction and afforestation in recent years.

Environmental protection, energy saving, climate change - all are buzzwords in media reports, government documents, commercial advertisements, and common people's daily conversations.

With the national environmental watchdog being upgraded to cabinet status, environmental protection has been given more say in shaping the country's economic development.

Under such a framework, enterprises have adopted more active measures in greening their businesses, with some taking leadership in fighting the worsening environment and global warming.

Common people's environmental awareness has also been beefed up thanks to the efforts of not-for-profit environmental protection organizations in China.