Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province has made great strides in its green development, guided by the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," in the past 15 years.

The concept was first proposed in Huzhou's Anji county in 2005, and has since proved to be an important guide for both rural and urban areas in China. This year marks the 15th year since the concept was first put forward.

A report released last year ranked Ningbo 16th among cities nationwide in terms of green development. It placed fifth among cities with a per capita disposable income of more than 50,000 yuan ($7,246.3).

Statistics show that the city's standard coal consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP fell from 0.474 tons in 2015 to 0.41 tons last year. As of the end of last year, the energy from renewables accounted for 5.98 percent of the city's total electricity consumption. 

Ningbo Zhoushan Port, which is the world's largest port by cargo throughput volume, has become China's first port to introduce paperless procedures for container handling. The reform is estimated to save 150 million yuan in logistics costs, as well as reduce emission of carbon dioxide by 44,000 tons per year. 

In the past 15 years, the city has launched a series of measures to tackle air and water pollution.

Ningbo now ranks among top the 20 cities in the country in air quality, with a forest coverage rate of over 47.7 percent. It also tops Zhejiang in the capacity of centralized utilization and disposal of hazardous wastes.

The sustained efforts in ecological conservation have yielded results in Ningbo. 

Ninghai county in Ningbo was second in the 2019 ranking of the top 100 counties in terms of green development in the country, which was compiled by Zhejiang University.

The county has seen robust growth in its rural industries like ecological tourism, homestays, as well as agricultural and sideline product processing in recent years. In 2019, the turnover of its homestay sector totaled 241 million yuan, resulting in more than 800 million yuan in sales of cultural and sideline products.