Shandong recently issued guidelines to promote green development in urban and rural areas, so as to accelerate the development of green and low-carbon cities and beautiful and livable countrysides.

The guidelines include 14 measures to coordinate green development in urban and rural development, covering the green upgrading of infrastructure, the green transformation of construction methods and forming a green governance model.

Qingdao, Shandong province [Photo/VCG]

Focusing on the construction of green and low-carbon cities, the province will promote the construction of sponge cities and urban water saving projects. It will support Qingdao in carrying out national trials for green city construction and development, and form a development model that can be copied and extended.

The province will accelerate modernizing the system and capacity for urban management. Cutting-edge technologies such as big data, cloud computing, block chain, and artificial intelligence will be utilized to innovate the methods, models and visions of urban management, and make cities smarter.

To build a new socialist countryside that is beautiful, prosperous and harmonious, Shandong will promote the comprehensive treatment of rural household garbage, and map the sewage outlets and control the discharge of pollutants. It is expected to launch the green energy development campaign in rural areas and build about 100 benchmark towns and 1,000 benchmark villages by 2025.

It will also improve and upgrade rural areas' infrastructures. The province is committed to making progress in ecological civilization and continuously improving the ecological environment and rural living conditions.

Night view of Yantai, Shandong province [Photo/VCG]