As China's first national green development demonstration area approved by the State Council, the China-Singapore Ecological City will explore the green development industry and will provide advice for Chinese characteristic new urbanization, according to a press conference of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Located in Binhai New Area of North China's Tianjin city, the China-Singapore Ecological City is being built by the Chinese and Singaporean governments. Its total area reaches 30 square kilometers. Taking ten years to construct, the city will be able to be a home for 350,000 people. As a model of an international ecological city, each building in the city will be "green" – or ecologically sound.
Yuan Tongli, a Tianjin municipal standing committee member, said that after six years' construction, an area of eight square kilometers has become a mature community with a green industry and infrastructure. The number of people who work and live there has reached over 20,000.
Xu Datong, committee director of the ecological city said, "The city is built on saline and alkaline land. One third of the land was saline and alkaline desolated beach, another one third of the land was wasted saline land, and the remaining one third of the land was polluted water."
"We have managed the 40-year-old polluted water, greened 3.3 million square meters of land, and explored a way to develop the saline and alkaline land," added Xu.
Referring to Singapore's experience, the city established a unified and standard community center providing full services that residents' daily needs can be satisfied within 500 meters.
The city has been designed to reach 100 percent clean energy usage and a 20 percent renewable energy rate. Solar energy facilities are available on each building's roof and balconies.
In addition, the temperature control system of the community centers, hotels, and office buildings are built based on ground source heat pumps.
Moreover, the LED street lamps in the city use both wind and solar energy to generate electricity, which take advantage of wind power along the seashore. These kinds of street lamps will make up 60 percent of the total amount of street lamps in the city.
Xie Zhenhua, vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission said that green development has already become a global trend, while China is just a fresh starter with no experience. Therefore, China's green development depends on pilot projects, such as the China-Singapore ecological city.
Xie added that constructing green demonstration areas requires highlights of ecological civilization construction, which promotes green and low-carbon development, resource conservation, as well as high-efficient usage and recycling of energy. It is also a pioneer exploring the Chinese characteristic new urbanization.
Xie also thought that the demonstration area would not only reorganize the ecological constructing system in China, but also make great a contribution to the world.
Tianjin is focusing on the implementation of missions related to the project, such as optimizing city layout, improving the development of green and low-carbon industries, promoting smart city construction, encouraging resource conservation and scientific use, enhancing ecological construction and environmental protection, and cultivating green culture.
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