In September 2003, Guangzhou(Canton) launched a project named “Beautiful Mountain, Green Land, Blue Sky and Clean River” to improve the living standards for the people. It seeks to protect the environment while promoting economic development, thus generating impressive results.

Guangzhou(Canton) has shut down rock quarries and replaced them with green lands. It has carried out an over-bridge greening project, upgraded the city’s green project, and improved the parks’ eco-system, forming a grid-shaped multi-dimensional eco-structure.

To improve the air quality, Guangzhou(Canton) has put effective controls on the emission of sulfur dioxide. It has transferred the polluting enterprises in the downtown area to its suburbs according to the policy of “phase out the secondary industry and promote the tertiary industry”. Guangzhou(Canton) has adopted the National Standard III since Sept 1, 2006. It has pushed forward the “gas instead of oil” program in the catering and service industries, effectively curbing air pollution from the source.

The Guangzhou Government has made great efforts to control the pollution of the Pearl River and inland rivers. Its sewage handling capacity grew from 580,000 tons/day in 2001 to 1.533 million tons/day in 2005. The Swimming across the Pearl River Campaign, which has been suspended for decades, was re-launched on July 12, 2006. A dream has finally been realized.

At the World Conference on Water in 2006, Guangzhou(Canton) was awarded China’s Best Living Environment Prize ( Demo-city for water management) , a testimony to the years of efforts building an “eco-friendly city” and a “green Guangzhou”.