Factories, mines and other industrial plants in Beijing that spew out a high-level of pollution, such as those engaged in mining and iron-smelting, will have to say farewell to the city.
   
Mayor Wang Qishan said the municipal government was looking at ways to help all the city's 640-plus mining plants move out.
   
Wang said the move is aimed at protecting and rehabilitating Beijing's environment, especially in mountainous areas where most mines are located.
  
The municipal government plans to spend 950 million yuan (US$115 million) this year on afforestation and environmental protection, 18.8 percent higher than last year, according to the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission.
   
The projects include building more green belts around Beijing to stave off sandstorms, protecting the city's water reservoirs and cleaning up rivers, said Song Yu, a senior official with the commission.
   
By the end of this year, there will be 46 square meters of green land for every Beijinger, one square meter higher than the current figure.
   
Meanwhile, the amount of trees covering Beijing is expected to climb by 0.5 percentage points to reach 50 percent by the year end, according to the municipal forestry authority.
   
As part of its efforts at environmental protection, the city may reduce its annual coal output from the current 16 million tons a year down to 9 million tons by 2007, according to a local development plan.
   
The plan, which was worked out late last year and is waiting for approval from the municipal government, says the city may close two-thirds of its township-owned collieries by 2007 and then close down the rest by 2010.
   
Township-owned coal mines in Beijing currently account for about half of the city's annual coal production.
   
Other mining plants, including iron, lime and copper mines, will also be shut down gradually in the next few years, according to the Beijing Municipal Administration of Work Safety.
  
Besides the mining industry, the Shougang Group, China's fourth largest steelmaker, will move all its polluting steelmaking plants out of Beijing by 2010.
   
The relocation, which has just been approved by the central government, means the steel giant will reduce its annual steel output by 4 million tons in Beijing by the end of 2007 as the first step.
   
Non-polluting sectors of the economy, such as research and development, the mechanical and electrical industry and logistics services, will move into the vacated sites when all the steelmaking plants have left.
   
Shougang will build a new base on the tiny island of Caofeidian, off the coast of neighboring Hebei Province, with an annual production capacity of 8 million tons, according to the plan.
   
The steel group promises it will use high technology to reduce pollution as much as possible at the new base.
   
In order to have a "Green Olympics" in 2008, the municipal government is looking at other ways to improve the environment.

(China Daily March 4, 2005)