With rapid growth and the attendant negative enviornmental impact, China is focusing more and more on developing sustainable options. And now it is planning the world's first eco-city, planned from the ground up to have a minimal ecological footprint.
...One significant development is that the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation has commissioned the world’s first purpose-built eco-city – Dongtan. It will be built on Chongming Island in the Yangtze River Delta on an area the size of Manhattan Island – 86 km2. By 2010 it will be a city of 25,000 people, by 2030 it will reach some 500,000 people.
It is designed to be a beautiful and truly sustainable city with a minimal ecological footprint. The goal to use Dongtan as a template for future urban design. As China is planning to build no less than 400 new cities in the next twenty years, Dongtan’s success is of crucial importance.
For all the environmental damage China's growth is causing, they also seem to be really stepping up to the plate to do something about it. Of course, whether or not it's enough remains to be seen, but it's heartening to see that the head-in-the-sand philosophy doesn't seem to be at play there.
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