Hu joins locals to plant trees

Source: Xinhua  |   2009-4-6  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

PRESIDENT Hu Jintao and other senior Chinese leaders joined nearly 2 million people in Beijing for voluntary tree planting yesterday morning.

Hu said the Beijing Olympic Games greatly improved the city's environment and he hoped those achievements would be maintained and improved upon.

He also called on the public to continue to be actively involved in tree planting activities so as to make China cleaner and greener.

Leading officials from central government ministries and Beijing's municipal departments, as well as local residents, planted trees over the weekend. That's a total of about 1.8 million people, the Beijing Municipal Forestry Bureau said.

A decision by the National People's Congress on voluntary tree planting issued in 1981 says Chinese citizens aged from 11 to 55 should plant three to five trees every year, as a way to increase China's forest coverage rate.