China is building first 'forest city' of 40,000 trees to fight air pollution

China is constructing one of the world's first "forest cities" to fight air pollution and curb the production of toxic gases.

The city is expected to house up to 30,000 people and absorb approximately 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 57 tons of pollutants and produce about 900 tons of oxygen per year as a result of the abundance of trees and plants growing there.

The city, designed by architect Stefano Boeri, is under construction in Liuzhou, Guangxi province in China.

Once constructed, the "forest city" will have roughly a million plants of over a 100 species along with 40,000 trees planted in the facades of almost every possible surface.

Liuzhou Forest City PHOTO: WWW.STEFANOBOERIARCHITETTI.NET

The Liuzhou Forest City will connect to the already developed city of Liuzhou via a series of electric cars and fast rail services. It will reportedly also house two hospitals and a number of schools, while plans are under-way to make the forest city self-sustainable when it comes to power generation by utilising geothermal and solar energy resources.



Liuzhou Forest City PHOTO: WWW.STEFANOBOERIARCHITETTI.NET

The architect's website states, "The diffusion of plants, not only in the parks and gardens or along the streets, but also over building facades, will allow the energy self-sufficient city to contribute to improve the air quality (absorbing both CO2 and fine dust of 57 tons per year), to decrease the average air temperature, to create noise barriers and to improve the biodiversity of living species, generating the habitat for birds, insects and small animals that inhabit the Liuzhou territory."

Recently, the country has been leading the way in "green living" with the government announcing the completion of the world's largest floating solar farm and now the beginning of the construction of the world's first forest city to help reduce air pollution.

This article originally appeared on The Independent.