Qingdao was ranked high in national urban ecological construction effect, according to the "Eco-City Green Paper: A Report on China's Eco-City Construction and Development (2016)" recently released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The ecological construction effect of 284 cities in 2014 was evaluated based on the latest data. 284 cities are classified into five types: very healthy, healthy, sub-healthy, unhealthy and very unhealthy. The following cities are in the very healthy category including Zhuhai, Xiamen, Sanya, Weihai, Huizhou, Zhoushan, Qingdao, Guangzhou, Changchun, Tongling, Haikou, Karamay, Fuzhou, Jiangmen and Huangshan.

These account for 5.28 percent of participating cities, an increase of 1.41 percentage points over the previous year. Also, the number of sub-healthy and unhealthy cities has decreased, indicating China's growing achievements in eco-city construction.