REDSTAR Hangzhou March 2020

/ FEATURES // 广 告 • 特 辑
HOW ECO-
FRIENDLY IS
HANGZHOU?
By Ryan Wilson
An issue that has plagued the world
ever since industrialisation became
part of everyday life has been
pollution and the ever decreasing
amount of green areas as cities grow larger.
When most people from abroad think of
China, visions of gray skies and tightly
packed cities are what usually come to mind.
But that is changing. In honour of the green
month of March, here are some reasons
why Hangzhou should be on your list of
places to visit if you love eco-friendly cities.
Hangzhou has been one of the eco-friendly
leaders in China for quite some time now
with many projects ranging from city
bicycle sharing (long before Mobike and
Hellobike came along), to being a pilot
city in China’s Low-Carbon City and Eco-
Garden City programs. With forest coverage
of over 67%, Hangzhou has done a lot to
ensure that the environment remains a
top priority. Around West Lake alone there
are more than 8,000 acres of mountains
and forest. The forest coverage, mass tree
planting, and the general beautifying of
the city’s urban landscape has become
such a hit that even bloggers and travellers
such as Mark Brown on CitiNature
have written entire articles about it.
As part of the Low-Carbon City program,
Hangzhou has not only pledged to
decrease its carbon emissions substantially
by developing low carbon industries,
transportation, and institutional reform, but
it is also one of the only Chinese cities to go
beyond the national targets. As part of the
Eco-Garden City program, it has pledged to
not only preserve existing parklands, but
create more through planting more parks.
Hangzhou is currently increasing its subway
system from the 5 lines already open to 13
in the coming years which not only makes
it easier for people to travel around the
city, but drastically decreases the amount
of carbon emissions by fossil fuels needed
for daily commutes. Even though a lot of
the trees around Hangzhou’s streets have
been cleared during the digging of the new
subway lines, it’s a small temporary price to
pay to have far less traffic on the road. So
far there are more than 1.7 million trips per
day on the subway and that number will
only rise as more and more lines increase
the number of people that can opt for
this quick convenient form of travel.
Even more impressive is the fact that here,
you can practically ride across the entire
city by bicycle—something you rarely
see outside of Europe. Long before the
sidewalks became polluted with rentable
bikes randomly thrown wherever they were
dismounted, Hangzhou already boasted the
largest public bicycle system in the world.
As part of the Eco-Garden City program,
Hangzhou has also improved city-wide
access for pedestrians and bicyclists.
32 redstarhangzhou.com