The Department of Housing and the Ministry of Land and Resources selected Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province, to be in the first batch of pilot cities to use more environmentally friendly urban development policies, according to officials with the provincial Department of Housing and Construction. Efforts to carefully plan urban expansion are important because poorly organized development can ruin important local land such as farmland.
As a pilot city, Guiyang will use the principles of protecting arable land and the environment and promote better conservation while propelling the city's growth. The program aims to efficiently respond to the growth of cities while protecting local farmland.
The 13 other pilot cities are Beijing, Shenyang, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Xi'an.
