Residential buildings are in harmony with the natural surroundings in a village in Anji county, in Zhejiang. [Photo/IC]

More than 150 homestays, regularly used by foreign visitors, have been opened in Deqing of Huzhou, contributing to the blooming local tourism industry. Last year the county received 7,668,000 tourists.

Last year, Zhejiang's Green Rural Revival Programme was honored with a Champions of the Earth Award, the UN's highest level of environmental recognition recognizing exceptional figures, companies and public departments whose actions have had a transformative positive impact on the environment.

As announced on the UN official website, the program was awarded for the transformation of a once heavily polluted area of rivers and streams in East China's Zhejiang province. The website also says the exceptionally successful eco-restoration program shows the combined, transformative power of economic and environmental development.

CCICED's Solheim said today's Zhejiang is an epitome of China and even the whole world in the future.