A new-style, high-standard, ecological demonstration area project, jointly researched and planned by Chinese and foreign experts, is being carried out in China. Currently, the first of its kind is being built in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province.

Participants of the project include experts from Eco-city Builders International, the China Society of Ecology, the China Society of City Planning and the Ningbo Dean Ecological Group. The demonstration area is expected to be built into a first class demonstration area.

The city of Ningbo is surrounded by the sea and mountains with a city area of 1,033 square kilometers. Its topography is high in the southwest and low in the northeast, and its climate is subtropical monsoon.

With rapid economic development since the implementation of the opening up and reform policy in 1978, environmental pollution became more and more serious in the cities. To tackle the problem, local government took a series of measures, such as the industrial enterprise resettlement, the adjustment of industrial structure and the improvement of technologies.

The Ningbo Demonstration Area will adopt advanced ecological disposal technology for domestic sewage and the disposal of garbage and a water cleaning system to form a sewage and garbage recycling system. It will also adopt afforestation technology to green roofs and walls in residential areas. It will pursue natural landscaping and biodiversity and use clean energy throughout.

The area will respect residents' requirement for building an ecological residential area. It will actively develop ecological villages by using environmentally-friendly building materials. Planning and design will put traffic and ventilation lighting functions in top consideration.

The area will greatly develop tertiary industries such as entertainment, healthcare, tourism, sightseeing agriculture and breeding industry by rationally using its natural resources. It will build economic forest to realize large hectares of afforestation by planting fruit trees. The various kinds of industries will develop accordingly.

Compared with current industrialized communities, the new demonstration area will adopt ecological concepts and technology in planning, design and construction. It will be an eco-city of harmonious relationships, coordinating relationships between humans and nature, in a beautiful environment and with an efficient economy.

(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong and Daragh Moller, December 10, 2003)