AFTER meeting the 40 requirements and indexes listed for eligibility for National Forest City status and officially submitting an application to the national forestry authority recently, Shenzhen will likely be granted the title of “National Forest City” by as soon as October, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.

The Shenzhen Municipal Urban Management Administration held a news conference Tuesday, briefing on the city’s efforts toward earning the national title by distributing more plants and flowers over the past three years.

According to the bureau’s spokesperson, Yang Lei, Shenzhen initiated a citywide campaign focused on making Shenzhen a city of trees and flowers in 2015. A total of 52 major projects have been carried out.

Currently, the city’s forest coverage is at 40.68 percent and the green land area per capita is 15.95 square meters. The city now has a total of 2,443 kilometers of greenways and as many as 942 parks. Shenzhen is one of the cities with the most parks in China.

A total of 11 natural parks, 36 urban parks and nine wetland parks have been opened to the public in recent years.

Plants bring fresh air to residents. Shenzhen’s average PM2.5 recorded in 2017 was 28 micrograms per cubic meter, making it one of the top 10 cities for air quality in the country.

Restoring the ecological environment has been a key task, according to the bureau. Shenzhen has invested 1.06 billion yuan (US$149 million) to develop and uplift its forests. The OCT Wetland Park in Nanshan District has been listed as a national trial area.

In terms of planting more flowers, the city has decorated 23 boulevards, 79 streets and over 120 key urban areas with various sorts of flowers.

The next plan for the city is to construct more greenways, pedestrian pathways and ecological corridors to connect forests with urban areas. Shenzhen is also probing better uses of urban spaces where more trees and flowers can be planted, according to Yang. (Zhang Qian)