'Acid rain city' no longer, 'garden city' emerges

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Fresh air, blue skies and bauhinia blossoms. People in Liuzhou, once an industrial city of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is now living in a better environment because of the local government's idea of "green development."

"The blossoms show that Liuzhou's environment is getting better," said Xu Lei, a local resident. Xu added that his young daughter used to complain a lot about the city's awful environment but was surprised by its changes.

The air quality in Liuzhou has improved a lot in the past 60 years. /VCG Photo

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the GZAR. Liuzhou, an industrial power and automotive manufacturing hub in the 1990s that was once riddled with acid rain, has changed significantly.

Heavy industries such as automobile, iron and steel brought wealth and glory, as well as environmental damage. Statistics show that the annual frequency of acid rain in Liuzhou reached 98.5 percent during the 1985-1995 period.

Vegetables and fruits could not survive, while bicycles would become rusty quickly if parked outside, recalled Zhao Fu, a local environmental official.

To shake off the label "city of acid rain," greater scrutiny of chemical emissions and treatment to fight the pollution were carried out by the local government. Several steel plants were removed from Liuzhou, and companies that failed to meet the environmental requirements were shut down.

Liuzhouers enjoy a better environment. /VCG Photo

As the largest steel enterprise in south China, the Guangxi Liuzhou Iron and Steel Group Company Limited was under pressure as people were discussing whether to keep it open. In order to survive, the company invested more than 1 billion U.S. dollars to improve technology dealing with problems such as waste gas disposal.

After the initiative, official figures show that 84 percent of the days in Liuzhou have good air quality.

Besides the effort to improve the air, measures to protect the downtown rivers and to increase the green coverage of the city have also been carried out. For example, the government launched an initiative in 2012 to make the city “garden-like," planting more than 200,000 bauhinia trees.

In 2016, the water in the environmental functional area of Liujiang River reached the standard completely. In 2017, Guangxi's forest coverage rate reached 62 percent, surpassing those of many cities in China.

Guangxi enjoys 62 percent of forest coverage, 2017. /VCG Photo

Locals used to worry about the negative impact on economic development if they gave up heavy industries. However, the results of “green development” have turned out well.

Liuzhou can be considered a miniature model for Guangxi's "environmental battle" in the past 60 years, aiming to create an environmentally-friendly home for its people.

"The objective for us is to build Liuzhou into a prosperous city with a good environment in which people can live happy lives," said Zheng Junkang, a local official.

When a city of acid rain becomes a livable home, "I am proud of my hometown," local resident Zhao Yilin said, "in every aspect."

(Cover photo: Spring, Liuzhou's season of blossoming. /VCG Photo)

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