A city's development is not judged by the per capita GDP but by the quality of its residents' life and their sense of happiness and satisfaction. That's how Hangzhou Party Secretary Wang Guoping described the health and development of a city yesterday.

Hangzhou began a campaign of branding itself as a "City of Quality Life" and developing its tourism industry to befit its image as "heaven on Earth". Hangzhou has made "quality life" its brand slogan and set for itself a long-term goal of development, Wang told journalists and editors from the Asia News Network (ANN).

Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang Province and is one of the most developed cities in East China. It has not been blessed with natural resources, but landmarks like the West Lake make it a tourist's paradise. In fact, the West Lake is its brand icon. "We have the most beautiful natural scenery among all cities with a rich cultural heritage and we are the richest heritage-wise among all cities famous for their natural beauty," Wang said.

Hangzhou is expected to attract 2 million overseas visitors this year alone, making it the sixth most popular destination for tourists from abroad, Hangzhou Vice-Mayor Zhang Jianting said. Also, it has remained the third most popular city among domestic tourists for many years.

But the Hangzhou authorities want to make the city more popular and friendly with tourists, and for that they plan to intensify their collaboration with Asian cities.

On the economic front, Wang said: "Hangzhou's export-import volume this year will reach $30 billion, and 50 of the world's top 500 companies have set up shop here; some have manufacturing units and some, R&D centers."

The thousand-year-old Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is being refurbished and will be turned into a tourist attraction similar to the waterfront along the Mekong River in Bangkok. "We have learned from Hong Kong too," Wang said. Hong Kong aims to be the cleanest city in Asia, while Hangzhou intends to become the cleanest on the mainland. "Cleanness influences a city's living standard. And that becomes a reality not because of tourists but because of the local people," Wang said.

Many people in popular destinations are skeptical of their governments' efforts to develop tourism for fear it could harm their life and ruin their comfort. But Hangzhou has managed to assure local people that tourism brings money and creates jobs, and that they are welcome to enjoy the fruits of these developments, Wang said. "Seven parks along the West Lake used to have admission fees but now we have made them all free."

Another community friendly and transparent aspect of Hangzhou is that it involves the public in development planning. "We in Hangzhou have a reputation of minding others' business," he said in a lighter vein "which means we are concerned about public affairs."

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal development plan invited public opinion and criticism, and offered free access to the residents to the scenic spots after they were built. The city authorities got about 5,000 proposals, from which scholars and the local officials chose "City of Quality Life".

"Once they get to share the benefits, people will understand the importance of developing tourism. They will begin supporting it. I believe residents and tourists can co-exist amiably in Hangzhou, just like they have done in Venice." Wang said a city's natural environment is its most precious resource because the core development strategy has to go along with environmental protection.

"We won't be stupid enough to sacrifice the environment for economic growth," he said. But Hangzhou is facing a great challenge on the environmental front because its car ownership ratio is even higher than Hong Kong's. Hence, to control emission, the authorities have made it mandatory for all vehicles to use Euro-III standard engines.

"But more importantly, we are trying to develop public transport," Wang said. Besides subsidizing bus fares and the 700 million yuan ($9.38 million) that it has invested in environmentally friendly buses, Hangzhou will also spend 34 billion yuan ($4.56 billion) in the next five years to build a 68-km-long metro.

That is not all. To cash in on the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games, Hangzhou has signed agreements with the State tourism bureau and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) to promote Hangzhou among international visitors to Beijing.

The way things are going now, it seems the city will indeed be like the Chinese saying "there is heaven above, Hangzhou and Suzhou below".