Eco-Cities
Building eco-cities is a smart choice for humanity to achieve harmonious coexistence with nature. It is a farsighted strategy for sustainable development of Chinese cities. The goal is to build compound ecosystems featuring nature-society-economy interdependence, and ensure environmental protection, social fairness and sustainable growth of the economy.
The idea of eco-cities highlights the eco-environment in improving people's wellbeing and the coexistence of humanity with nature. It is a positive response to the people's desire for a beautiful eco-environment. The CPC and the Chinese government consider building eco-cities to be an essential and basic public service for the people to live and work in an environment with blue skies, green vegetation and clear waters, with a stronger sense of benefit, happiness and security.
From the perspective of economics, building eco-cities is an efficient means of resource allocation. From the perspective of urban construction, promoting sustainable development of cities is a long process.
In recent years, Chinese cities have advanced resource conservation and recycling across the board to cut consumption of energy and materials, and made ecological explorations in such aspects as urban spaces, environment, industrial development, urban buildings, transportation and energy, thus turning themselves into garden cities, green cities, or cities with beautiful landscapes. Eco-cities also accommodate the living demands of their residents, develop eco-environmental awareness in their daily life and work, and guide them to gradually adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle.
生态城市
生态城市建设是人类探索与自然和谐相处聚居模式的智慧选择，是实现中国城市可持续发展的长远战略选择，其内涵是建设自然—社会—经济相互依赖的复合生态系统，实现环境友好、社会公平、经济发展的可持续性。生态城市的概念阐明了生态环境在民生改善、人与自然相处中的重要地位，是对人民群众日益增长的优美生态环境需要的积极回应。建设生态城市，就是将优美的生态环境作为党和政府必须提供的基本公共服务，让人民群众在天蓝、地绿、水净的环境中生产生活，不断提升优美生态环境给人民群众带来的获得感、幸福感、安全感。
从经济学的角度讲，生态化是一种最高效率的资源配置；从城市建设的规律看，促进城市的可持续发展是一个漫长的过程。近年来，中国城市全面推进资源节约和循环利用，降低能耗物耗，在城市空间、环境、产业、建筑、交通、能源等方面进行了有力的生态探索，孕育出花园城市、绿色城市、园林城市、山水城市等不同的生态城市类型。同时，建设生态城市还应充分理解城市居民的生活需求，将生态环境建设融入生活和工作中，通过环境建设引导、改变生活方式，最终实现城市居民生态观念和意识的提升。