The city is seeking designs for environmentally friendly cloth bags through a two-month-long design competition that opens Thursday.

"The competition is mainly to solve the fashion issues over cloth bags and we hope residents can create the bag with multi-functions and fashionable designs, which can encourage residents to use the bag more often," said Sun Jingfeng, director of the Publicity and Education Center of the Shenzhen Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

The competition is part of this year's campaign marking World Environment Day, which falls on June 5.

"Since June 1, plastic bags will be charged in shopping malls and supermarkets, so cloth shopping bags will become very important to people," Sun said.

Residents can go to www.huanbao.96990.com for detailed information and to sign up for the competition.

Lectures on environmental protection will be held on World Environment Day in June. Renowned scholars such as Pan Wenshi, a zoologist studying giant pandas, and Yi Zhongtian, professor at Xiamen University, will be invited to give lectures on environmental issues.

The bureau will also encourage residents to walk or use public transport June 6, the city's Green Action Day.

(Shenzhen Daily May 26, 2008)