Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, covers a land area of 13,000 square kilometers, and has a population of 7.2 million, with 5 million of its urban.

As a heavy industry base, Shenyang used to be a highly polluted city. To solve environmental problems, local authorities launched a large tree-planting campaign and invested about 5.5 billion yuan (US$687.5 million) in increasing green area over the past four years.

At present, green area of the city has reached 114 square kilometers, with per capita public green land at 12 square meters.

According to the official website of the expo, green area have increased especially in the last three years. Now Shenyang has set up 13 natural reserves, accounting for 13.5 per cent of the total area of the city.

Meanwhile, authorities also strengthened pollution control over manufacturing enterprises.

More than 600 heavy-polluting operations, such as metal smelting, cement and papermaking, moved out or shut down.

In addition, a comprehensive sewage treatment system has been established in the city to ensure proper handling of household and industrial waste.

The government has set up and renovated five sewage treatment factories. The rate of sewage treatment grew to 71 per cent in 2004 from 48 per cent in 2000.

Thanks to the municipal government's efforts, ecological environment of the city has been significantly restored. It was rated as a national green city last August.

(China Daily April 25, 2006)