"Media groups should play an important role in environmental protection," said Liu Youbin, deputy director general of education and communications department from Ministry of Environmental Protection, today.

Liu made this remark at the opening ceremony of Foton 2008 China Ecological City & County Tour held in Beijing, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal ecological tour will be part of the activity.

It is co-organized by China Environmental Journalist Association, www.ce.cn and China County Times. Journalists from twenty news media including People Daily, Xinhua News Agency, and Economic Daily will report cities' environmental protection along the 1,609-kilometer Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal from June.

With the sponsor of Beiqi Foton, a leader in vehicle energy saving, the report team will cover cities including Hangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou and Tianjin Municipality.

"Enterprises should bear more social responsibility, especially in the field of environmental protection," said Xing Hongjin, vice-president of Beiqi Foton Motor Co Ltd, at the meeting.

Foton has invested a lot of money in developing clean energy in a bid to reduce the pollution, said Xing, adding its OUV hybrid bus has realized mass production which can help save 25 percent of energy, and its fuel battery bus will operate during the Olympic Games.

The canal ecological tour is one of key activities of "green Olympics and environment-friendly society" guided by Ministry of Environmental Protection, and June 5 is also the 37th World Environment Day.