OREANDA-NEWS. March 14, 2012. Cities of Anqing, Hefei, Chizhou and Huangshan in Anhui province strive to create national forest cities, local authorities said at a news conference on Monday.

Huangshan was approved of establishing the National Forest City by State Forestry Administration a couple of days ago, while Anqing, Hefei and Chizhou got the green light in 2011.

Huangshan aims to raise its forest coverage to 78.6 percent in 2015 from the current 77.4 percent.

Hefei, capital city of Anhui, has been making great efforts to create the National Forest City despite a vegetation coverage rate of merely 22.2 percent.

Anqing has launched seven projects to hike its forest coverage to 36.5 percent and create an urban forest eco-system.

The government of Chizhou spent 670 million yuan on 171 green projects last year. The city hopes to raise its forest coverage from 56.87 percent to 58.87 percent through campaigns to create the National Forest City.