The city of Datong has seen some success after coming up with its green development vision this past year and has increased its green area by 1.77 million square meters, with a green coverage of 43.3 percent, up by 1.64 percentage points; a green rate of 38.52 percent, up 1.6 percentage points; and 14.03 sq m green area, up 0.91 sq m per capita, from last year.

It has its eyes on national garden city standards and wants overall total green transformation with unified planning in different districts. It now has four green engineering projects -- the Yudong Public Activities Center, Zijiacun Forest Park, Yu River landscaping, and a south city wall park -- which added 1.15 million sq m of green. It has also had 39 roadside greening efforts and four scenic spot greening projects, while planting more than 20,000 trees and flowers. It has completed courtyard greening projects around 12 public institutions and in 22 residential districts.

The city is giving equal weight to green management to make it market-oriented and professional, and has chosen companies for maintenance through open bidding.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw