At the 2015 China Forest City Conference, in Anhui province, on Nov 24, the city of Ordos, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region got a “National Forest City” designation, a top award for its greening activities.

The city sits in a arid and semi-arid part of the region and suffered from encroaching desertification and soil erosion, but, after a long, hard period of work, it has a forest covering of 2.24 million hectares, or just over 25 percent of its total and a vegetation coverage rate of 42 percent in its built-up urban area, and green area per capita of almost 33 square meters.

The title of  “National Forest City”is the top recognition of a city’s ecological development and something that was included in China’s 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020).