The method used to harness the Fenhe River in Taiyuan, capital city of Shanxi Province, will be spread to the whole world by the United Nations as a model for improving the living environment. This emerged from an appraisal conference of the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment held recently.

The 710-km Fenhe River is the second largest tributary of the Yellow River. Due to years of irrational development and over-reclamation, the river course in Taiyuan became overgrown with weeds, badly silted and polluted by sewage and garbage. The river basin had lots of barren hills, where the forest, grasslands and vegetation had been badly damaged. Over 80 percent of the water system was polluted.

In 1998, the Taiyuan municipal government started a project to deal with the ecological damage and beautify the environment. Some 560 million yuan (US$67.74 million) was invested for the construction of the Fenhe River Park. The project is an integration of multiple functions, such as flood prevention, sewage drainage, environmental protection, forestation, tourism and entertainment facilities. Based on the original 20,000-square-meter oasis and island of birds, the project involved putting 5,000-kg of fish fry into the river, providing a 15,000-square-meter green site for residents, a 6-km green corridor and 10 open parks in different styles.

The project has had clear effects in purifying the air, controlling wind and sand damage, adjusting the climate, increasing humidity, improving sewage drainage and the water flow, giving impetus to the development of tourism, promoting industrial structural adjustment, and promoting regional economic sustainable development. It has become a fine example of urban ecological and environmental construction.

The Dubai Award is one of the highest awards presented by UN biennially to cities that make outstanding contributions to improving the living environment. Taiyuan won the award for 2002.

Baotou of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gongyi of Henan Province, Quanzhou of Fujian Province and Suzhou of Jiangsu Province have also won the award in the past.

(China.org.cn translated by Li Jingrong on January 2, 2003)