Xiamen: A Model of Environmental Achievement

A January 1999 report from U.S. Embassy Beijing

Summary: Embassy Beijing Environment, Science and Technology Counselor recently visited Xiamen, a small city in Fujian province which has been designated a model environmental city by the State Environmental Protection Administration.

The city is actively substituting lng and oil for coal in boilers in the city center, moving industrial facilities out of residential and scenic areas, expanding green areas, and introducing a series of measures to reduce vehicle derived pollution.

All of the urbanized areas of the municipality have running water and in 1998 ninety-eight (98) per cent of the water met national and local standards. Xiamen has a large, central municipal sewage treatment plant which treats approximately fifty percent of the annual discharge of forty (40) million tons.

The city is also developing industries to use recycled materials and factories already exist which take used newsprint, beer bottles, and certain plastics. The city has several educational programs to raise environmental awareness. The city planning office requires developers to file environmental impact documents for all new construction.

Xiamen's Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) also is developing green space, promoting organic (pesticide and chemical fertilizer free) foods, training government and factory workers to raise environmental awareness, and developing nature reserves in the city environs.

In short, Xiamen city leaders recognize the advantages, both economically and in quality of life for its citizens, of having a clean environment to live and work in, and are doing everything they can to help the city live up to its model status.