The general awareness of environment protection was further enhanced, and the development of environment protection speeded up. By the end of 2000, there were 128,000 people working in environment protection agencies in China. Some 2,204 environment monitoring stations were in operation employing 40,000 workers. New achievement was made in the protection of nature, as was illustrated by the pilot establishment of 213 ecological demonstration zones. China also had 1,227 natural protection zones (including 155 national natural protection zones) covering 98.21 million hectares or 9.9 percent of the total land areas of the country. The legal construction for environment protection achieved new progress with further enforcement of environment-related laws. By the end of 2000, about 438 standards concerning environment protection were formulated. Among all construction projects started in 2000, 91.5 percent of them implemented the evaluation program on the impact of the projects in question against the environment. About 98 percent of all construction projects put into operation in 2000 had pollution control facilities. A total of 38,101 projects against environment pollution were completed within the specified time frame during the year, absorbing a total investment of 20.8 billion yuan. Two thousand seven hundred and eighteen smoke/dust control zones were established in 537cities, covering an area of 18,000 square kilometers; and there were another 2,288 zones covering 13,000 square kilometers in 476 cities, where the noise pollution was put under specified level.

The deterioration of environment pollution was initially put under control. The total emissions of major pollutants continued to decline. In 2000, the total emissions of 12 major pollutants were down by 10 to 15 percent as compared with that in 1995. By the end of October 2000, over 90 percent of the 238,000 pollutant-discharging enterprises met the environmental standards. Among the 46 key environmental protection cities, the surface water quality in 33 cities and the air quality in 22 cities met the standards. Of which 18 cities had both air and surface water quality reached the standards, and the rest cities were close to the standards.

Active progress was made in key environmental protection projects. Among the 5,188 key pollutant-discharging enterprises along the "Three Rivers", and the "Three Lakes" (Huaihe River, Liaohe River, and Haihe River, Taihu Lake, Dianchi Lake, and Caohu Lake), 95 percent of them met the environmental standards. Fifty-five wastewater treatment factories were built along the Rivers and Lakes, and another 111 were under construction, altogether accounting for 67 percent of the planned target. The air pollutions protection in the " duel control zones" (acid rain control zones and sulfur dioxide control zones) achieved initial success. Among the 175 cities in the "duel control zones", the concentration of the sulfur dioxide in 102 cities met the second grade standards. By the end of November 2000, some 3,944 enterprises of the 4,678 sulfur dioxide-discharging enterprises in the "duel control zones" met the national environmental standards, accounting for 84.3 percent of the total.

Statistical Communique of the People's Republic of China on the 2000 National Economic and Social Development

• Part V: Education
• Part V: Science
• Part X: Culture, Public Health and Sports