From Nation, page 9, issue no. 346, December 17th, 2007
Translated by Zuo Maohong
Original article: [Chinese]

A biting cold and dry wind sweeps through Shanxi province's Changzhi, just as it does across many cities in northern China during the winter. Walking on one of the city's sidewalks, even on a foggy winter day, one can easily distinguish the black dust that has settled in between the slits of the brick pavement.

Undaunted, this same city's local government is busy campaigning for awards such as "National Residential Environment Award", "World Residential Environment Award", "The Most Beautiful City in Shanxi Province", "The Most Ecologically Friendly City" and " The Most Suitable Place to Live in Central China". The list goes on.

In reality, this heavy-industry-dependent city was in 2004 classified by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) as one of 113 environmental crisis hotspot cities.

With this background, few would expect such a city to win the title of "China's Top Ten Charming City" that very same year. But the praise didn't stop there-- more glamorous titles followed, , including "National Garden City", "National Sanitary City", "Outstanding City in Greenery Projects", "Model City of Environmental Protection in Shanxi", and more.

Changzhi has been seriously polluted for as far back as Zhang – a teacher of Changzhi Medical College who has lived there for 47 years – can remember. City residents have to change their clothes at least once a day to remain clean, and things get worse during the winter. "But in general, the city is cleaner than many other cities in Shanxi," says Zhang.

Among the 113 cities listed for environmental monitoring in 2004, Changzhi was at the top of the list. "The mention of Changzhi evokes the image of a blackened and polluted city, and this impelled the local government to take action and improve its conditions," says Sun Yimin, office director of Changzhi Municipal Bureau of Landscaping.

Changzi's local government leapt at the opportunity to redeem its reputation when CCTV, the national television station, launched a competition to find "China's Top Ten Charming City" in 2004. The competition – with a jury line-up of intellectuals that boast names like Jin Yong and Yi Zhongtian, two famous Chinese writers, – attracted entries nationwide.

Changzhi campaigned for the title and won the honor. During the award presentation ceremony, the following comments were given to Changzhi: "Today, the city is covered with green and it's full of vigor, and things are looking up."

From the comments, it seemed that environmental rescue efforts had played a role in transforming the previously black-listed place into an award winning city. However, Li Xiaodong of Changzhi Municipal Environmental Protection Administration tells the EO that the competition weighed cultural and historical elements more, with little consideration given to economic and environmental issues.

Thus, his administration viewed the title won as a publicity stunt facilitated by CCTV, as there was no clear criterion stated for assessing the competition's entries.

Brand Name Reengineering Projects
The award marked the beginning of a series of "brand-name engineering" projects launched by the Changzhi local government, which subsequently picked up more awards and began a yearly quest for different titles.

In January of 2006, the city was crowned "National Garden City" by the Ministry of Construction. The award assessment record reads, "44.8 percent of the city is covered by green vegetation, 35 percent higher than the required percentage."

Six months later, Changzhi won the "National Sanitary City" title. The award's assessment criterion was said to be quite strict, covering seven major items and 54 minor ones.

"We can't say the city completely meets all the requirements. For example, according to the water quality standards established by the government, the water quality in ‘sanitary cities' was supposed to be category three, but water quality in Changzhi's reservoir actually fell under category four [which is worse], except when there's adequate rainfall in spring and summer. The city narrowly got the approval rate because the assessment was done in late summer," Sun explains.

Emboldened by these previous successes, the latest ambition of Changzhi is to campaign for "Most Suitable City for Living". But when the EO asked local government officials about the issue, they all claimed to be unsure of the selection criteria, and unsure of who was organizing the competition.

Problematic Partial Assessment
In fact, instead of the whole city, only Jiancheng District, which represents one eighth of the entire city, was assessed during the drives for all the awards Changzhi has previously won.
In Huguan, a district in southeast Changzhi, polluted water keeps flowing into a river. A local named Liu tells the EO that the water comes from nearby factories and is polluting the drinking water for residents in the lower reaches of the river. Carrying a pungent smell with it, the water finally flows into Zhangze reservoir.

"The city centre is now cleaner than before. But all this is just like a show to redeem the city's image. One can easily see pollution when traveling to other districts frather away from downtown," says another local known as Wei.

In the city's northwest corner, near the Changzhi Steel Group, thick coal dust covers the roads and tree leaves. For Zheng, a clerk with the company, the scene is taken for granted.

"This is the way it has always been, there's always more pollution than downtown. Streets get dirty again soon after janitor clear them up," she says.

According to Zheng Weiping, vice director of Changzhi Municipal Environmental Protection Administration, the city was "born with pollution". As a major base for coal mining, almost every city in Shanxi province is polluted, only to different degrees.