At the end of 2001, Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province won the title of "International Garden City." On May 26, it was again awarded the title of "Best Practice to Improve the Living Environment of the United Nations" and nominated to compete for the globally recognized highest Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment in June.

How can Guangzhou's urban construction win more and more international recognition within a short period of half a year? A People's Daily reporter recently had an interview with some review committee members of the Dubai International Award whose viewpoints may give a clue.

Reporter: "Guangzhou has won the Best Practice title and been selected as one of the forty candidate programs. How do you think about Guangzhou's application?

You Jianhua (the UN's director of Best Practice and Policy Department): All members of the Technological Advisory Committee are surprised to see Guangzhou's progress. Just a few years ago, Guangzhou was still seriously troubled by a range of problems such as transportation and city management. But now these problems are well solved. The measures adopted by the city include developing public transportation and rail transportation, building up a municipal road system and giving space to bicycles. Many rapidly developing countries in the world also face similar problems, but few of them have adopted such an integral and comprehensive solution.

Compared with five or ten years ago, Guangzhou has also made surprising achievements in the living area, city public greenbelt and the Pearl River bed environment improvement.

Reporter: Does the TAC have any advice to offer Guangzhou's urban management?

Lee Seung-Bok (professor in architecture of the University of Sungkyunkwan, Korea): "This is the first time I visited Guangzhou, and it gave me a special impression. Guangzhou has excellent buildings. The banks of the Pearl River are also beautiful and attractive to tourists. Additionally, I find Guangzhou citizens full of confidence. It seems that the urban environment improvement of Guangzhou makes citizens confident of the future."

Reporter: "Among the forty candidates, four are from China, quite a big ratio. Does that have something to do with the fact that the conference will be held in China? Which candidate from China do you think will win the Dubai International Award?

Chen Xiaoli (UN Human Settlement expert, president of the first review committee): "This is a good question as well as a hard one to answer. Why China has so many candidate programs has no bearing on the venue. It's not a surprise to see so many Good Practices and Best Practices emerge in China since it is hard to find other similar places that could develop so fast within so short a time. I think I can say 'the whole of China is now a big construction site.' I remember Mr. Wu Liangyong once said 'This is a great and unprecedented era that we can see the realization of so many programs in so short a time.' As a planner, it is fortunate for me to be part of this great era. China's situation is rare to see in other places in the world. As a result, China has so many programs nominated. As we will not go through the final review, we dare not to forecast which program will win. But we are confident that Chinese cities can win out."　

One important factor the international review committee takes into consideration is the policy changes of the government. I still remember some slogans by some local governments such as "economic development is primary, environmental protection is secondary" or "pollution first and rectification later." Now "sustainable development" has been a basic policy of the Chinese government. Moreover, remarkable progresses have been seen in many Chinese cities including Guangzhou.

Reporter: "Guangzhou is awarded as the Best Practice. What is Guangzhou's superiority and exemplary significance?"

Chen Xiaoli: "Its exemplary role lies in Guangzhou's approach to problems. Instead of taking mere palliatives, it adopted comprehensive measures to solve its traffic problems. The municipal government and all citizens have made joint efforts in implementing these measures instead of just drafting them, and therefore, achieved excellent results with small input. In addition, Guangzhou has improved the living and investment environment while developing its economy. The magnitude and depth of Guangzhou's change is a prominent reason for its nomination.

Last but not the least, even the Best Practice honor doesn't mean perfect. With six cities winning Best Practice title and four nominated for the Best Forty candidate program, though, China has a lot of problems to be solved in improving the living environment. These selected Best Practices will introduce good experience to China and other cities in the world.

The reporter also had interview with Vice Mayor Shen Ponian. Shen said with excitement that this nomination means the international recognition of Guangzhou's achievements in urban construction and this is an honor to Guangzhou and Guangzhou's citizens.

Shen Ponian said that to build Guangzhou into a city suitable for living has always been an important goal of the municipal government. While improving the urban environment, Guangzhou began to target at the Best Practice Honor to Improve Living Environment of the UN. In 1999, Guangzhou invited the Dubai municipal government delegation to visit the city and sent a work group to visit Dubai last year.

After sufficient preparations, the municipal government decided to apply for 2002 Best Practice Award with the program of "Guangzhou's Five-year Action in Comprehensive Improvement of the Urban Environment," highlighting Guangzhou's experience and achievement in solving hot spot issues and environment issues of great concern to its citizens. The application work began in February. All materials required were prepared and submitted in March with the recommendation of the Ministry of Construction.

The reasons to choose Guangzhou as the venue involve the support from the Ministry of Construction and the strong recommendation from Dubai city, Guangzhou's friendship city in United Arab Emirates, according to the mayor.

Shen Ponian said three reasons might be cited for Guangzhou's nomination. First, Guangzhou citizens have stronger awareness of environmental protection. As Guangzhou's economy develops rapidly and Guangzhou citizens' educational level keeps rising, local residents shift their focus of attention from eating and drinking to environmental protection and living environment improvement. They have higher anticipation towards the environment and building up a pleasant environment has been the common aspiration of all Guangzhou citizens.

Secondly, the municipal government put the goal of building Guangzhou into a city suitable for living high on its work agenda. Environmental protection enjoys an equal status with economic development. Guangzhou's success is the result of joint efforts by the municipal government and all citizens.

Thirdly, Guangzhou's overall economic strength has increased substantially in recent years. The government is now able to allocate some 15 billion yuan (US$1.81 billion) annually to improve environment. Without such strong investment, Guangzhou can never achieve this feat. Shen Ponian said that the municipality will increase input and adopt more measures to improve the living environment.

(China.org.cn by Alex Xu June 24, 2002)