China has built 4,596 ecological towns

Chen Jining, Minister of Environmental Protection, said in Beijing on the 14th that demonstration projects for ecological civilization must be carried out in depth, and that on the basis of advancing ecological province construction, the upgrading of ecological civilization demonstration zones should be accelerated with prefecture-level cities and counties as the focus, in an effort to promote green transformation and development.

It is understood that since the State Council issued the National Ecological Environment Protection Outline in 2000 and proposed ecological province construction, 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country, including Hainan, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei, Guangxi, Sichuan, Liaoning, Tianjin, Shanxi, Henan and Hubei, have carried out ecological province construction. More than 1,000 cities, counties and districts are advancing the cell project of ecological province construction, vigorously carrying out ecological city and county construction. 92 areas have achieved phased results in ecological city and county construction and have been named, 4,596 ecological towns have been built, and a number of advanced models of coordinated economic, social and environmental development have been created.