"Sound ecological environment is the most inclusive benefit to people's well-being," Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a visit to Hainan in April 2013.

President Xi has long championed ecological protection, aiming to create a better world for future generations. In 2005, while serving as secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, he visited Anji County, where he first put forward the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," which later became an important guide for China's green development.

Under such vision, China has steadily advanced its green transformation, rolling out low-carbon energy, phasing out outdated industrial capacity, building a national park system, restoring ecosystems, enforcing a decade-long fishing ban on the Yangtze River, and promoting livable cities.

These efforts have resonated with the public. According to the State Council, satisfaction with China's ecological environment reached 91.24 percent in 2024, surpassing 90 percent for the fourth consecutive year.

One of the most dramatic milestones came on July 6, 2025, in Alxa League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. At the southern edge of the Badain Jaran Desert, workers completed the final straw checkerboard, linking three vast "green belts" along the rims of the Badain Jaran, Tengger, and Ulan Buh deserts. This 1,856-kilometer-long barrier, dubbed a "Green Great Wall," halts encroaching sand, significantly harnessing the desertification and securing regional ecological safety.

Alxa is one of China's driest regions, home to all three deserts, covering 94,700 square kilometers of fragile land. In June 2023, Xi convened a meeting on desertification control; by November, Alxa had launched a sweeping desertification-control campaign.

But planting trees alone was not enough. Local leaders also built a desert economy alongside the green push. In Mandela Sumu, rows of saxaul trees thrive in the sand, sheltering high-value desert plants like Cistanche and Cynomorium. This model – "forestation to fix sand, sand-based industries to create wealth, industries to enrich people" – has turned ecological restoration into a source of income for local people. 

Today, Alxa boasts tens of thousands of hectares of industrial bases for desert plants. By the end of 2024, its desert-related industry had surpassed 2 billion yuan ($278.8 million) in output value.

Alxa's story is just one snapshot of China's broader green development. Beyond targeted restoration in fragile areas, China has woven green principles into urban and rural planning, vigorously promoting the construction of beautiful cities and villages.

In cities, "pocket parks" and greenways are sprouting everywhere. By the end of 2024, China had built more than 48,000 parks and 128,000 kilometers of green paths. Urban green coverage has risen from 39.22 percent in 2012 to 42.06 percent in 2021, and the per capita park space has grown by 25 percent. In rural areas, China has advanced its "toilet revolution," improved waste and sewage treatment, and promoted clean energy adoption.

In Rizhao, east China's Shandong Province, a former coastal aquaculture zone has been transformed into a seaside greenway that sees over 20,000 visits a day. Local runner Zheng Fang told China Media Group (CMG) that the city has seen a growing number of green spaces and parks in recent years. "On Tuesdays, I run at Galaxy Park; Wednesdays at the Botanical Garden; Thursdays at Sports Park; and Fridays at Railway Park. Greenery is everywhere."

Wang Lu, a resident of Hefei City in Anhui Province, has also noticed the changes. She told CMG, "Over the past few years, green spaces have been added everywhere, even in the smallest corners. Having greenery all around has really boosted our sense of well-being."

Air quality has improved just as dramatically.

In 2013, the State Council launched the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan; by 2022, the average PM2.5 levels had dropped by 57 percent, and heavy pollution days fell by 93 percent, making China the fastest-improving country in the world for air quality. A new plan, released in 2023, aims to cut PM2.5 levels by another 10 percent by 2025 and keep heavily polluted days under one percent.

To meet these goals, China has implemented a wide range of measures: promoting green upgrades in industries and products, accelerating clean, low-carbon energy development, expanding green transportation networks, targeting diffuse pollution management, and launching nationwide campaigns to encourage green, low-carbon lifestyles.

These efforts are reshaping daily life. In Tianjin, residents can now see Beijing's skyscrapers from their rooftops. In Chengdu, snow-capped peaks 200 kilometers away are visible from the city streets. Official stargazing spots have increased twentyfold since 2016.

As one Beijing resident quipped, "Now blue skies aren't news, smoggy days are."

"We used to take photos whenever the sky was clear, but now we snap pictures when there's a sunset or a rainbow. The cleaner air has even raised our sense of beauty," the resident said.