Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Thursday inspected the environmental protection of the Yangtze River during a visit to a riverside district in the city of Nantong, east China's Jiangsu Province.

Xi said he visited here specially to learn about local efforts in overhauling the environment as he came to inspect the Yangtze Economic Belt and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

"The dirty and messy places in the past have been turned into green belts in parks now," Xi said, noting that a happy life is achieved through the hard work of all.