On October 12th, the shortlists for 2017 national ecological garden cities, counties and towns were announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development of China (MOHURD). Zhijiang was among the six selected cities in Hubei province.

　　National Ecological Garden Cities are evaluated on the basis of the National Standard of Ecological Garden City, which regulates that these cities should be evenly distributed, reasonably structured, fully functioned with beautiful sceneries, fresh and comfortable ecological environment for living. It is not only one of the most important city brands now in China, but also an overall indicator of the urban ecological environment and integrative development of social economy. Over the last three years, Zhijiang government has spent ¥4.72 billion to provide capital guarantee for the establishment of the National Ecological Garden City. With the idea of “One park with one theme, feature and landscape”, Zhijiang government has actively launched activities on the creation of national ecological garden city. For example, some parks and roadside green lands have been constructed to provide conveniences and benefits for the people, the upgrading project of Wuliu Park and Bingjiang Park have been carried out, and the construction of 48 parks and green lands have been completed including Seasons Harbour Ecological Park, White Duck Temple Olympic Park, Danyang Park, Yangjiadang Park and Friendship Square, Kangle Green Land and etc.

　　At present, citizens can “see green plants within 300 meters and gardens within 500 meters” while going out. 99.07% of Zhijiang’s parks have been covered with green lands, the comprehensive park number per ten thousand people has reached 0.29, gaining 82.2% citizen satisfaction index of urban landscaping. (Correspondent, Fang Qi)