After six years' unswerving endeavor, Zhenan, a county in Shaanxi Province, has yielded remarkable fruits.

Its total output value was nearly 3 billion yuan (US$441 million) in 2009, up 85 percent compared with that of 2005. Its per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents was 12,668 yuan (US$1,863) and 3,003 yuan (US$442) respectively, twice the figures of 2005.

As the economic data soared, environmental protection in the county also witnessed notable accomplishment. Its forest coverage rate is 67 percent.

Located in the center of the provincial mining area and the South-to-North Water Transfer Project Preservation Region, Zhenan faces sharp conflict between economic development and environmental protection.

Since 2004, the county government has vowed to take environment into consideration while pursuing recycling economy as a sensible solution.

Over 180,000 tons of mine tailings are transformed into concrete, cement and bricks every year, with the joint effort of the local government, enterprises and scientific institutions from Nanjing and Suzhou in Jiangsu Province and Beijing.

"The new technology has functioned well. Energy consumption for 10,000 yuan's GDP in our county has reduced to 1.071 ton, with CO2 and SO2 emission dropping by 150 and 711 tons," said officials during a recent press conference on the county's recycling economy.

Just in the local Xiushan Cement Plant, tailings replaced 120,000 tons of clay in cement making last year, which would have cost 6.7 hectares of fields.

Mining industry is one of the pillar industries of Zhenan, a key county included in the national plan for poverty alleviation through development.

The county's mining industry produces 500,000 tons of tailings annually, adding to the current 5 million tons, which frequently endangers local environment and miners' safety.

As part of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, measures have also been taken in the usually neglected rural sewage disposal. Farmers were encouraged to build household bio-gas pools to recycle their domestic sewage, which used to be discharged directly into the river.

With a population of 247,000, Zhenan is lying in the southeast of Shaanxi province, featuring for its mining industry and mountainous agriculture.