Wenjiang is Chengdu's great experiment in environmental planning. Since 2000, this 277-square-kilometre district to the west of Chengdu has planted 130 square kilometres of greenery, reaching an impressive coverage rate of 48 per cent. The city plans to increase this to more than 50 per cent in the coming years.
One of the major initiatives of the project is the Wenjiang Green Belt, a 150-metre wide, 156km-long corridor that will stretch around the entire city of Chengdu by 2015.
The belt follows the Jinma and Jiang'an Rivers - tributaries of the Min River, which flows south from Dujiangyan - and is one of the city's most beautiful and rejuvenating escapes from the urban bustle.
Today, local residents can rent bicycles at the entrance to the beltway and cycle all day, stopping at small teahouses along the way, and either spend the night at a local bed and breakfast or pedal back. Eventually, one will be able to drop bikes off at set points around the corridor.
The corridor is not only a scenic addition to the city, it is also an important carbon absorption area and an energy saver.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, in the past decade Wenjiang's energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP fell by 43.6 per cent and urban carbon emissions fell by 8.9 per cent, even as the district enjoyed nearly 300 per cent economic growth.
