Europe provides sparkling example, and China is following

In cleaning up its pollution, Hunan province is taking the lead in the country

The world was awed by the way sprawling European cities sitting on the Danube and the Rhine revitalized themselves during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

After a fact-finding tour of Hunan province, Central China, recently I am convinced that this goal is attainable in China, and even more quickly than was the case in Europe. China faces many enduring headaches in its cities and tremendous challenges in moving nearly 300 million people, equal to that of the US population, into cities by 2030. Indeed, such a challenge has never been confronted in human history, but that has not deterred the country's leadership from facing that challenge.

As with China's approach over many years in tackling the difficulties in opening up and reform, it has taken an experiment-first attitude in simultaneously dealing with urbanization and industrialization. Four years ago, the central government gave Hunan that challenging experimental task, the premise being that several birds needed to be killed with one stone. That is, the province needs to find ways to improve its environment and upgrade its polluting and low-end manufacturers into high-tech and green ones.

At the same time it needs to speed up urbanization and improve living conditions in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan city corridor. Apart from the three biggest, densely populated urban clusters - Beijing-Tianjin, the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta - China has decided to build about 20 medium-sized urban corridors or clusters, in each of which tens of millions of people will live. Most of these urban clusters are in central or western China, and are economically less developed but environmentally downgraded in most places. So the pilot project in Hunan is of great significance for the rest of the country, especially in the center and in the west.

Specifically, the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban corridor in Hunan, in which more than 13 million people live and which produces more than 40 percent of the province's economic output, needs to set an example to the rest of the country in building a society that cares for its environment and uses its resources wisely. That will help China sustain economic and social development after more than 30 years of galloping growth. It must be said that Hunan and the three cities have had no small responsibility to shoulder. Several years ago emissions and heavy metals from low-end factories had contaminated sections of the Xiangjiang River so much that its water was undrinkable in the cities that it flows through. And in areas of cities where chemicals and fertilizer are produced, the air was so bad and smelly that taxi drivers told me they kept their windows shut when they drove through them. The quality of life in the cities was poor, low-end manufacturing gave them an economic fillip, and environmental protection was all but unknown to the public. Last month, I led an independent team of experts to assess the initial outcome of this pilot project entrusted by the central government in the corridor. After visiting villages, cities, schools, factories and industrial zones, and talking with people at all levels, I am happy to report that over four years things have changed greatly.

My colleagues and I completed several reports on the pilot projects, and experts and officials in Beijing who have read them have been astonished at the progress.

The capital of Hunan, Changsha, has even been given a United Nations award for its beautiful urban environment. Zhuzhou, which used to be listed as one of China's top-10 polluting cities, has made it onto the list of the country's most habitable and ecologically sound cities. Xiangtan is now on the list of Chinese cities renowned for their gardens and forests.

A bicycle hire system has been set up in Zhuzhou, and other cities have expanded public transport to reduce the use of cars. In fact, the list of green accomplishments in towns, townships, villages and schools is practically endless. Most importantly, the local economies have been radically overhauled. Traditional sectors such as construction materials, food processing, fireworks production, textiles and chemicals have been improved by inserting high-tech know-how and information technologies. At the same time, the driving force of economic development in cities has switched to upmarket industries such as biotechnologies, information and software, environmental protection, space technologies, aviation and cultural innovation.

They have also made breakthroughs in wind power technology, aviation, new energy, auto, rail transport, super computers and hybrid rice, which have obtained patents globally. And high-tech progress has contributed to nearly 52 percent of the local economic growth.

What underlies all of this progress is experience.

Hunan and the three cities have acted boldly, innovatively and with a pioneering spirit to break out of old moulds, encouraged by the central government. Proper, scientifically based planning by the cities has been a foundation stone in proceeding with this green urbanization.

In all of that, the most pressing tasks the local governments have faced have been in taking heed of environmental concerns and in economic restructuring.

Of course, building an institutional framework in which all this can happen has also been critical. Hunan has set up an office, headed by a top provincial official and leading Party and governmental officials of the three cities, to coordinate the shift of the urban corridor. They report to the Party secretary and governor of Hunan. Four years is very little time for the completion of such a task, and the central government has required it to finish by 2020 its mission of creating a society that fully respects its environment and its resources.

In the eight years ahead, a lot more obviously needs to be done, and Hunan needs to be more decisive and ambitious. By dint of my close working ties with Europe, especially with Germany, I have visited cities along the Rhine valley many times. I have also been impressed by the experience Europeans, now struggling with their debt crisis, have accrued in urban planning and construction, legacy protection, environmental protection, industrial upgrading and human development.

Early last month Vice-Premier Li Keqiang reached an agreement with his European colleagues on cooperation in matters of urbanization. Apart from trade and investment, I believe that in this area both sides are keen to deepen cooperation, which will not only have immediate economic benefits but will also benefit generations to come in China. So, apart from internal reforms, Hunan needs to act boldly to open up. But when talking about green finance and the tax system, emissions trading, ecological compensation and other reforms, we should realize that Europeans have a lot more to share. There is more advanced green technologies than in treating pollutants and emissions. Just as importantly, Chinese cities can learn from their welfare systems so that income gaps are closed, reducing the risks of public discord.

In tackling its problems, Hunan can finally turn the Xiangjiang River into a waterway that is as clean as the Rhine and the Danube. Once that is done, the rest of China will have a sparkling example to follow.

The author is president of China Institute for Reform and Development. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.