The first phase of Beijing's ambitious project to build a "green wall" to rein in the sandstorm menace is in place.

It is hoped the green belt of 7,400 hectares of trees surrounding urban areas will protect residents just as the Great Wall prevented invading armies from passing.

The belt has come into being after a five-year effort, said Gan Jing, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Forestry Bureau recently.

The first trees, part of a multi-billion-dollar "green wall" project, are located between the city's Third and Fifth ring roads.

The construction of the second phase of trees is already in full swing, mainly in the suburbs outside the Fifth Ring Road, said Gan.

Different from the first ring-shaped belt, the second belt will be made up of several wedge-shaped areas scattered around the suburbs, such as in the northwestern Wenyu River area and in the southwestern Yongding River area, Gan added.

The second belt is expected to cover 165,000 hectares of land.

The municipal government may allow private cash to be used in the project, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning.

"A network of green belts is an important and effective way of keeping sand and dust away from the city," said Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

"Besides, the vegetation will help lower noise and improve the city's air quality," Du was quoted by the Beijing Youth Daily as saying.

According to forestry bureau statistics released this week, Beijing has seen an extra 141,000 hectares of "green" land in the past five years. By September last year, the city's total vegetation area was more than 1 million hectares.

"The plant coverage rate of Beijing is expected to top 50 percent at the year-end, three years ahead of our original plan," said Gan.

This means more than half of the city will be covered with vegetation.

Beijing promised in its Olympic Action Plan in 2002 that the city's vegetation coverage rate will increase from 45 percent at that time to 50 percent in 2008 when the Summer Olympic Games will be held.

"Our focus is gradually turning from tree-planting to tree-conservation. We need to protect the trees from fire, diseases and pests since young trees form a majority of the city's forest," said Gan.

Cui Jiliang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Observation, said his team has been working with the Beijing Television Station (BTV) to release information about the dangers of forest fires.

It is hoped it will help citizens understand how forest fires occur and what to do should one happen.

The fire-danger early warning system is classified into five grades. Grade Five, the so-called "red" grade, means there is a high risk of fire to trees, said Cui.

About 99.7 percent of forest fires in Beijing between 1984 and 2004 were caused by humans, said Cui.

(China Daily April 1, 2005)