Unremitting Endeavor

　　When Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the opening of the 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition (Beijing Expo) on the night of April 28, the expo park at the foot of the Great Wall in Yanqing District, Beijing, came into the spotlight of the world’s attention.

　　As suggested by its theme Live Green, Live Better, the expo, which lasts from April 29 to October 7, has been demonstrating to the world the value of green development and harmony between human and nature.

　　Ecological progress has been made a priority in planning, designing, construction and operation of the expo, as well as for its post-operation utilization. While building the park, nearly 50,000 trees remained intact and another 50,000 trees and 120,000 bushes were planted. In addition, as the park is an important location in the route of bird migration in China, a large piece of wetland was upgraded during the process of building the park.

　　In fact, ecological progress is not only a principle demonstrated at the Beijing Expo, but also part of the development philosophy China hopes to share with the whole world. “We should maintain the overall balance of Earth’s ecology, so that the starry sky, lush mountains and floral fragrance will be retained for our future generations who enjoy material prosperity at the same time,” said Xi at the opening ceremony.

　　As the largest developing country in the world, China has been endeavoring to meet its people’s demands for adequate food and clothing in the past over 40 years through reform and opening up, and has lifted more than 700 million Unremitting Endeavorpeople out of poverty. Now, people’s demands have upgraded from getting enough to eat and wear to living in a better environment. After years of efforts, blue skies and green mountains are no longer a fantasy. According to a study published in February in the journal Nature Sustainability, since the early 2000s, global green leaf area has increased by 5 percent, an area equivalent to the Amazon rainforests. At least 25 percent of that increase was contributed by China.

　　Take Saihanba region in north China’s Hebei Province for example. It was a deserted area in China. In the 1960s, China launched a program of afforesting the region to combat desertification.

　　After three generations of hard work, people there have grown trees of more than 1.2 million mu (80,000 hectares), increasing the forest coverage of the region from 11.4 percent to 80 percent. According to estimates, the sand storms in Beijing have been reduced by more than 70 percent, thanks to the “Green Great Wall” of the region.

　　Africa is also building its own Great Green Wall. The African-led movement with an ambition to grow an 8,000-km forest belt across the entire width of Africa is now cooperating with China’s Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography under the Chinese Academy of Sciences to achieve green development by using China’s experience.

　　The Beijing Expo will conclude on October 7. But the world’s efforts in advancing the ecological progress will never end, and people will continue to strive for a greener future.

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