Ecological campaign raising public awareness

Over the past decade, the annual Beijing Environmental Culture Week has launched more than 100 events in which tens of millions of people have taken part in.

As a crucial platform for local residents to build a greener and more beautiful Beijing, this year's weeklong campaign in June enabled the participants to have a better understanding of environmental conservation and the charms of ecological culture, organizers said.

Fourteen environmental events were launched online and offline during the week. Meanwhile, 63 cultural facilities were open to the public and 60 environmental education centers hosted activities to increase environmental awareness among the public, according to organizers.

At the opening ceremony on June 1 in Tianning No 1 cultural and sci-tech innovation park, which was once a thermal power plant, an exhibition, comprising 30 display boards and spanning 40 meters long, showcased Beijing's achievements in ecological protection and conservation since 2013.

Government data show that the past decade saw a drop of 66.5 percent in PM2.5 density. PM2.5 refers to particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less.

Lu Shiyue, a Beijing native, is a photography enthusiast. He has recorded the changes in the sky over Beijing with his camera.

"People used to shoot star trails on the outskirts of Beijing before, because star trail photography requires high atmospheric transparency," Lu said.

However, thanks to the improvement in the city's air quality, he was able to capture a series of star trail images from the Palace Museum in 2017, which won an award at an environmental-themed photography competition.

Behind the clear skies are a series of comprehensive policies and measures.

"Beijing has developed its own air pollution control solution, which has three focuses: emission reduction, a sound guarantee system and the involvement of all stakeholders," Xie Jinkai, an official at the Beijing Ecology and Environment Bureau, told Beijing Daily.

The city government has been monitoring and analyzing PM2.5 data. It got to the root of air pollution; addressing pollutants from coal fuel, automobiles, industrial enterprises and fugitive dust.

Its efforts have paid off. In 2021, Beijing's air quality reached the national environmental standards for residential and commercial areas, with the annual PM2.5 density standing at 33 mcg per cu m, a record low. The momentum continued into 2022, with the density dropping to 30 mcg per cu m.

Clear skies used to be rare in Beijing, so when they showed up, people couldn't wait to share their pictures on social media platforms, Xie said.

But nowadays such pictures are hard to find as clear skies are increasingly commonplace, she noted.

To enable the public to better learn about the changes in the environment and the stories behind the scenes, the environmental culture week has organized environmental inspection tours for three consecutive years. It invited representatives, including residents, experts and environmental workers, to visit front-line sites for environmental protection.

During this year's session of the campaign, trips to the Beijing Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center in Haidian district and an environmental conservation practice innovation base in Fengtai district were broadcast online, accumulatively attracting 2.4 million views.

Yuan Rishe, a primary schoolteacher in Beijing, who started to be involved in environmental practices at the age of 6, has been devoted to environmental protection for 23 years. She led her students to participate in various activities, such as collecting used batteries for recycling, planting trees and calling for saving paper and sorting garbage.

Pan Qingquan, a photographer who has long focused his camera on swans at Nanhaizi country park in Beijing, is also a volunteer for bird protection.

When he takes pictures of birds, he has been advocating civilized photography, with the premise of not disturbing their lives, Pan said.

"Moreover, I will engage in volunteer work related to wildlife conservation to enhance everyone's awareness of protecting wild animals," he noted. "This is something I have always been committed to."

Like Yuan and Pan, a growing number of people have joined in environmental protection and wildlife conservation via the campaign.

The environmental cultural weeks held over the decade have witnessed an upswing in Beijing's environment and continuous improvements in the ecological awareness of society, said Guo Meng, head of the publicity department of the Beijing Ecology and Environment Bureau.

According to a survey on public environmental awareness in Beijing, the index increased by 6.29 from 2018 to 76.81 in 2022. The expansion of environmental practices proved to be a major reason prompting the growth. Low-carbon travel and wildlife conservation were also among contributing factors, the survey found.