New Life for Xixi

Xixi National Wetland Park is located in west Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The formerly 60-square-km Xixi wetlands have an 1,800-year history, though it has only been in the last 20 years that the wetland's area has dramatically shrunk due to habitat destruction from urban encroachment. Today, the area is only 10.08 square km. In August 2003, the Government of Hangzhou decided to rescue the wetlands.

"When I was at primary and secondary schools, I often went to play around Xixi. It was a beautiful place," said Wang Guoping, Secretary of the Hangzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. He said real estate development threatened to destroy the Xixi wetlands. "Nobody wants such a result, so we decided to forbid development within 11 square km around the wetland," he said.

In the last six years, the local government has invested 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) into dealing with the Xixi wetlands. The project is divided into three phases and is expected to be completed by the end of this October.

The project emphasized preserving the integrity of ecological systems, improving the environment and the water quality, protecting the animal and plant resources and their habitats, keeping cultural heritage intact, coordinating facility construction and environmental protection and strengthening science education to protect the area. Three ecological protection and recovery areas including Feijia Pool, Xialong Beach and Chaotianmu Lake were set up inside the wetlands.

But the project did not abandon the tourism interests. Wang said that the government is now trying to find the best balance between economic, ecological and social concerns. "I believe the protection of the Xixi wetlands and economic efficiency can be achieved at the same time," Wang said.