State forest park to be built in Huarou District

(BEIJING, February 29) -- Labagoumen Township in Huairou District of Beijing has received permission from the State Forestry Administration to build a state forest park, reported the Beijing Daily. The park is to open to the public in 2010.

At present, Beijing has 15 state-level forest parks.

Labagoumen is located in the northern end of Beijing, about 160 km outside the city limits. It contains about 46,700 hectares of forest coverage and has long been known as a "land of forests." With more than 120 natural landscape areas, it is one of Huairou District's three major ecological scenic areas.

In 1992, the city's first state forest parks were named. The city now has 22 forest parks, among which 15 are state parks and seven are city parks. They cover some 83,000 hectares in total.