Datong has set up an objective since 2008 to develop itself into an ecologically friendly city, and has invested three billion yuan ($474.64 million) in a large-scale greening project to construct itself into a national garden city.

To date, Datong has launched a series of key projects to construct “green lungs” for the city.

The city has greened over 100 roads that are newly constructed or expanded, elevating the road greening ratio to 24 percent. The green belts in the center of roads stretch three to five meters wide. The roads are lined with neat and uniform trees on both sides to form a greening network for roads.

Datong has carried out unprecedented projects since 2008 to simultaneously protect the ancient town and green the city. It has ingeniously integrated greening and embellishments of the city. It has constructed 170 small scenic spots, totaling 613,000 square meters.

According to the Datong municipal parks and woods bureau, by the end of 2011, Datong has covered 43.42 percent of the city with trees, 38.6 percent with meadows, up 11.83 percent and 13.8 percent over 2007 respectively. The per capita public green area amounts to 11.89 square meters per person, up 6.69 square meters over 2007. It has turned into reality the dream of “planting woods in the city and enabling people to live in a landscape full of large acreages of trees and flowers.”