Beijing's forest coverage accounted for 50.5 per cent of its total area by the end of last year, three years ahead of its planned 2008 Olympic green goal.

The total green area in Beijing has reached 15.8 million mu or 1.05 million hectares with 35.47 per cent of forest coverage and 46 square meters of public green areas per capita. Beijing has achieved the initial ecological presentation of its 2008 Olympic promise that the "city will be surrounded by green hills with forest urban area and suburban green fields", People's Daily reports on Thursday in Beijing.

At present, the three green ecological belts of urban, plain and mountainous areas have been basically formed with evident improvement of the capital's ecological environment. Through several years of construction, the urban public green area has reached 89,100 mu or 5,940 hectares. The Beijing greening insulation belts total 116 square kilometers, which has greatly boosted the process of urban and suburban integration. The green corridor project of "five rivers and 10 roads" totals a green area of 360,000 mu or 24,000 hectares.

The five rivers are the Yongding, Chaobai, Dasha and Wenyu rivers as well as the north section of the Great Canal while the 10 roads include Beijing-Shijiazhuang, Beijing-Kaifeng, Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu, Beijing-Shenyang, Shunyi-Pinggu, Beijing-Miyun, Beijing-Zhangjiakou and the second outer ring road as well as Beijing--Jiujiang and Datong-Qinhuangdao railways. The project has taken an initial and high-standard system of forest protection. The green ecological corridors are used as the system's frames.

By People's Daily Online