Industrial enterprises in western China have voluntarily contributed to the national program of greening barren hills and lands in the region.

The Yanchang Oilfield recently earmarked 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) to plant trees along roads and around its oil drilling sites.

This is so far the largest sum an enterprise in under-developed western China has invested in afforestation since the Chinese government launched a strategy to develop the vast western region a few years ago.

Oilfield officials said they have decided to allocate several million yuan annually to beautify the environment.

"We should not boost economic development at the expense of the environment," said Hao Yu, director of the Yanchang Oilfield Administrative Bureau.

The Yanchang Oilfield, in northern Shaanxi, is the first gas field with a reserve of more than one trillion cubic meters found in China. Currently, the oilfield provides 4.7 billion cubic meters of gas to 15 cities in northern China, including Beijing and Tianjin.

In 2000, the government of Shaanxi Province invested 1.8 billion yuan (US$216 million) to plant trees along China's first desert expressway which links Yulin City with Jingbian County in northern Shaanxi.

A man-made forest covering 100,000 hectares is to be built around the Karamay Oilfield in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the next three to 10 years.

A green belt consisting of grass and trees will be built along the 1,118-km-long Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which extends from Golmudin Qinghai Province to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

The Chinese government has decided to use 1.2 billion yuan (US$144 million) for environmental protection along the world's highest railway, said railway official Lu Chunfang.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2003)