The 2021 Guangdong Forest City Construction Theme Promotion Event was held simultaneously in 21 cities in south China's Guangdong Province on Saturday.

Guangdong will accelerate the development pace of urban and rural greening, expand the urban ecological space, and promote the construction of forest cities at all levels to build a mutually integrated urban forest ecosystem, according to the province's Forestry Administration.

The event marks an uptick in ecological civilization construction in the province. Exhibitions were organized on nature education, forest hiking, theme tree planting and other forest city-related publicity activities 

In recent years, Guangdong has attached great importance to the construction of forest cities and regarded it as an innovative practice for the construction of ecological civilization. 

Forest parks, urban parks, landscape forest belts, and water bird corridors have been vigorously developed in the province. It also promoted the intercommunication construction of mountains, water and roads in cities, and built a "forest city group, forest city, forest county town, forest town, and forest village," a 5-level forest city construction system, the development pattern promoting harmony between man and nature.

At present,the province has built 11 national forest cities, 175 forest towns, and 440 national forest villages, resulting in balanced regional ecological development and urban-rural ecological integration.

Guangdong will implement the new development concept, initiate a number of key ecological protection and restoration projects, build a biodiversity protection network, optimize the ecological space within and around the city, and urban agglomerations in the following years, officials of the Forestry Administration said.