China’s Shihezi city delights Times Square with fruits of green development

According to Xinhua Screen Media Co., Ltd., its big screen measuring 19.5 meters high and 12.2 meters wide in New York’s Times Square, dubbed “crossroads of the World”, repeatedly played a promotional video from the Chinese city of Shihezi before Christmas.

The 30-second video showcases sweet fruits, intoxicating wines, a green city image and a happy life of people from Shihezi in China’s Xinjiang. It is also an epitome of China’s efforts to lead urban development with the concept of green development.

Shihezi, located in northwest China, grows cotton of high quality due to its dry and rainless climate. Melons, watermelons and flat peaches are also sweet and tasty due to the long sunshine. Shihezi is also in the world’s “golden zone” for grape planting. The natural advantages of climate and soil, coupled with irrigation by glacier and snow water from the Tianshan Mountains, ensure the high quality of local wine grape and robust development of wine industry.

One can not only feel the changes of the four seasons in the city, but also experience the landscape and pastoral scenery in the countryside. Founded only 70 years ago, the young city integrates the concept of green and ecological garden city into urban construction and development. It is committed to making the city embrace the forest and let the forest enter the city. People get more happiness and satisfaction from the development of the city.

Data show that the urban green area of Shihezi reaches 2,680 hectares, and the green coverage rate reaches 43%. There are more than 100 kinds of flowers and trees and more than 2.3 million trees in the urban area, which wins it the reputation of the “Shining Pearl in the Gobi Desert”. In 2002, it won the UN Dubai International Award for Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment.

Source: Xinhua Screen Media Co., Ltd.