One of the largest cities in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu has a tradition of ecological conservation and is known as a pleasant city in which to live.

The recently released Kung Fu Panda 3 uses Qingcheng Mountain, located in the city, as the inspiration for the fictional Panda Village.

Many great poets, including Li Bai and Du Fu during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) and Lu You in the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1127-1279), wrote verse about the beautiful environment in Chengdu.

Because of its picturesque scenery described in some poems as including the "chirping of birds and the fragrance of flowers", Chengdu has gained accolades as the "City of Hibiscus".

Local officials said they are working to recreate the beautiful scenes described in the poems and history books within five to 10 years.

The city has been upgrading its ecological environment in a bid to offer better living conditions to its residents. By 2020, the urban green coverage is expected to reach 46 percent, green space ratio to reach 42 percent and parkland per capita to reach 15 square meters.

Chengdu launched an Ecological Belt Around the City project in 2012. The project aims to create an ecological preservation area along the city's ring expressway by 2020.

According to the plan, land within 200 meters of both sides of the ring expressway will be used for ecological construction.

The ecological belt, with a total length of 85 kilometers and total area of 187 sq km, will connect six rivers and lakes and eight wetlands, increasing the city's total water area to five times that of the famous West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

The city is also planning to build several large-scale wetlands in its satellite cities.

To help build an ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu will also increase vegetation coverage on the Longmen and Longquan mountains that surround the Chengdu Plain.

A giant panda national park planned to cover 1,616 square kilometers in Chengdu will be established on Longmen Mountain in the west of the city. Through the building of the park, Chengdu plans to enhance the protection and recovery of the forest ecosystem on the mountain and protect biodiversity.

Statistics indicated that the city also plans to take three to five years to add 6,706 hectares of forest on Longquan Mountain in the east of the city, raising the mountain's forest coverage by 8.75 percentage points to 59.79 percent.

Through the protection and planting of forests on Longmen and Longquan mountains and in other parts of the city, Chengdu aims to raise its forest coverage to 41 percent and its forest stock to 33 million cubic meters by 2025.

Since 2014, Chengdu has been cooperating with seven surrounding cities around it to improve the environment of the Chengdu Plain Economic Zone, which is the most developed region in Sichuan and home to 40 percent of the province's population.

According to the plan, the cities will jointly implement projects in forestation, sewage treatment and air pollution control with the target of building a "green shelter" in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

(China Daily 02/02/2016 page7)