The city of Datong, Shanxi province, has changed from a dirty "black" coal city to a new tree-clad "green" city in recent years, with forest coverage of 20 percent, or higher than the provincial average of 18.03. In the process, three of its dumps have been turned into forest parks.

One of the three, Shilihe Park, is located in the western part of Datong and is still under construction. One person who is in charge of the park explained that, only two years ago, this place was a dump that stank in the summers where trash could be seen flying around everywhere on windy days.

In describing the change, one local woman surnamed Yang used the word "ecstasy" to express what a pleasant surprise it was when she first saw what had happened. Many other people echoed her sentiments and called it "a miracle" that a dump covering a 600,000-square-meter area reverted to its earlier ecological state in such a short period.

Work on the park started in 2010 and 70 percent of the work and greening project has been done, with 9,400 Chinese pines and Chinese scholar trees, 50,000 bushes, and ground cover carpeting a 10,000-sq-m area.

Another park, Zhijiabao, was already a fine example of an ecological park as early as 2009. In recalling that period, one of the park's environmental protection volunteers had this to say, “This place was full of trash and it affected the urban water facilities as well as the urban environment.” Another volunteer surnamed Qi added they were really relieved to see the dump being turned into a park, especially since it was four times the size of the city's three earlier parks.

The third park, Zijiacun, similarly, was built on a dump. In building the forest park, the city buried millions of tons of rubbish and planted trees on top, completely changing the environment of the new Yudong district.

In conclusion, one Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry official added this, "The three new parks are just a pilot project in Datong's larger ecology recovery attempt."