Ecological tours organized to raise public engagement

Districts across the city have organized guided walking tours for residents to discover the city’s ecology and learn about the eco-friendly solutions implemented throughout the city to mark the first National Ecology Day, which falls today.

Visitors enjoy the view at Futian Mangrove Ecological Park on Sunday. The 38-hectare park in downtown Futian District integrates popular science education, coastal culture and natural ecology with recreation. It is connected to the adjacent Futian Mangrove National Nature Reserve. On oasis of peace amidst the urban hustle, the park features riverside scenery and exquisite gardens, where visitors can watch fish and birds and have some quality time with family members. Liu Xudong

A group of 15 families joined an ecological excursion to Lianhua Hill Park on Saturday afternoon, which was organized by Shenzhen Ecology and Environment Monitoring Center.

Departing from Guan Shan-yue Art Museum, the parents and children walked along the greenways in the park to visit the automatic air quality monitoring and urban ecological monitoring station. They stopped to engage in crafting their own handicrafts using fallen leaves, branches and flowers.

Lianhua Hill Park, known as an ecological urban park, is rich in natural resources.

Children were offered species identification cards to help them identify the animals and plants along the route.

Residents at Futian Mangrove Ecological Park on Sunday.

At the air quality monitoring station, the visitors were amazed by the wide range of animal and plant specimens and precise instruments and monitoring equipment.

Technicians made a presentation to visitors about how to check air quality of their residential areas online, explaining how the monitoring data is generated and the significance of the air quality index.

“The ecological trip was a lot of fun and very informative. It helped raise children’s awareness of the importance of environmental protection,” a parent said during the event.

A walking tour organized last week by the environment authority in Longgang District led a group of students to several destinations dedicated to low-carbon practices, including Shenzhen International Low-carbon City, Xinqiao Residence and Datian Residence, known for its outstanding woodcut museum.

Xinqiao, which used to be a century-old urban village, has evolved into the city’s first near-zero carbon and sustainable development demonstration community.

Teenagers explored facilities with low-carbon technology applications in the community, including a solar-powered parking lot and benches offering phone recharging capabilities.

“I learned some knowledge about low-carbon solutions that couldn’t be learned from textbooks. For example, I found out that seaweed can absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen,” Ye Songkai, a 10-year-old student, said.

“The events were rich and widened my horizon. Solar energy application and sewage treatment are completely new technologies for me,” Dai Jianhao, another middle school student, said.

Bao’an and Nanshan districts also organized events to mark the day.

Over 30 families participated in a tour to Let’s Green, a center dedicated to dyeing and printing, in Bao’an. Before creating their own cloth bags, the participants were introduced to the vivid procedures of spinning, dyeing and printing on a piece of cloth while being educated about environmental protection and low-carbon concepts.

Nanshan has called on 25 eco-friendly enthusiasts to take part in an ecological tour today. Throughout the day, they will visit the OCT Wetland Park, China Resources Tower, Dasha River Ecological Corridor and Shenzhen Talent Park.

National Ecology Day

China's top legislature designated Aug. 15 as National Ecology Day on June 28, as the country strives to enhance environmental conservation for the construction of an ecological civilization.

The move is aimed at enhancing public awareness and actions to protect the ecological environment.

A train runs on BYD SkyShuttle rail transit system, which adopts a zero-emission electric propulsion system, in Shenzhen's Pingshan District last week. Photos by Sun Yuchen

Ecological civilization is a concept promoted by President Xi Jinping for balanced and sustainable development that features harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

What makes Aug. 15 special is that on the day in 2005, Xi, who then worked as Party chief of Zhejiang Province, first put forward the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” when visiting Anji County in the province. The assertion was a core idea of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, according to a media release by the legislature June 28.

A view of Longgang Energy Ecological Park in Longgang District. Focusing on the utilization, reduction, and environmentally safe disposal of waste, the park effectively converts municipal solid waste into valuable resources such as clean electricity, ecobricks, and industrial water. 

The establishment of the day will further promote ecological approaches to the public.

It is expected to help raise awareness about ecological civilization and make more people proactively support environmental protection in terms of both thinking and actions.

China has made historic, transformative and comprehensive changes in protecting its ecological environment and secured world-renowned achievements since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, bringing a strong sense of fulfillment and happiness to the Chinese people.

During the period, China managed to support average annual economic growth of 6.2%, with a yearly increase of 3% in energy consumption, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

The country’s energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by 26.4%, which is equivalent to reducing the consumption of standard coal by over 1.4 billion metric tons.

A scene at Huangmugang Comprehensive Transport Hub in Futian District. Put into use last year, the hub adopts a photovoltaic power generation system that can generate 379,600 kWh a year and reduce 378.4 metric tons of carbon emissions, saving 152 metric tons of standard coal. 

These endeavors have paid off, bringing tangible benefits to the Chinese people, who are enjoying blue skies, lucid waters and lush mountains.

In Chinese cities, air quality was good or excellent on 86.5% of days in 2022, marking an improvement of 20.8 percentage points from 2013.

The proportion of surface water at or above Grade III in the country’s five-tier water quality system reached 87.9% last year, up by 26.3 percentage points from 2012.

Forest coverage has risen to 24% in 2022, with a forest stock volume of 19.5 billion cubic meters, representing increases of 2.39 percentage points and 4.36 billion cubic meters, respectively, from 2012.

Many national political advisers and legislators have proposed establishing a National Ecology Day in recent years.

Some provinces and cities have already set up regional ecology days, including Zhejiang and Guizhou provinces and Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province.