Guiyu, China breaks down much of the world's discarded electronics, slowly poisoning itself in the process. Photographs by Chien-min Chung / Reportage by Getty.

For more than three decades China has achieved remarkable success in economic development, but its rapid growth has resulted in considerable damage to the natural environment. In 1998, the World Health Organization reported that seven of the ten most polluted cities in the world were in China. Sulfur dioxide and soot produced by coal combustion fall as acid rain on approximately 30 percent of China's land area. Industrial boilers and furnaces consume almost half of China's coal and are the largest sources of urban air pollution. In many cities, the burning of coal for cooking and heating accounts for the rest. At the same time, since the beginning of economic reform in the late 1970s, the government has paid considerable attention to environmental problems, particularly in terms of regulatory responsibility and enforcement at the local government level. China passed the Environmental Protection Law for trial implementation in 1979, and in 1982 the constitution included important environmental protection provisions. Since then, various laws and policies have been put in place to address China's current and future urban environment. The 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai provided evidence that the Chinese government views its environmental problems as a priority. The green construction of the facilities for the Expo and particularly of the Chinese Pavilion reflected the emphasis the government has placed on protecting and improving the environment through new technologies. In addition, China's "eco cities" have also been recognized worldwide for advances in urban sustainability, such as Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Wuxi.

A 108-meter high Eiffel Tower rises above Champs Elysées Square in Hangzhou. A Chengdu residential complex for 200,000 recreates Dorchester, England. An ersatz Queen's Guard patrols Shanghai's Thames Town, where pubs and statues of Winston Churchill abound. Gleaming replicas of the White House dot Chinese cities from Fuyang to Shenzhen. These examples are but a sampling of China's most popular and startling architectural movement: the construction of monumental themed communities that replicate towns and cities in the West.

Without plans to turn rural workers into urban citizens, urbanization can only become yet another round of massive land grabbing and city-building that has happened around the country for the last decade. This will create more people without roots who can neither integrate with their new urban environment nor return to their village. The next phase will no longer be only urbanization of the land, but of people.

What's interesting about this is not so much that some Chinese rivers are full of trash - this should not come as a great shock to anyone - but that it is a clever way of making a local issue into a national one. Sina Weibo has proved to be fertile ground for this, and we have seen the same story play out with corruption over the past few years and more and more weibo users realize that corruption isn't just a local issue after reading weibo accounts of "local" corruption all over the country. Deng Fei appears to be trying something similar here, as while one river being full of trash is a local problem, everyone's rivers being full of trash might point to a larger problem.

"Among all the ancient traditions that Chinese people observe during the lunar New Year, setting off firecrackers is the most controversial. Originally used to "drive bad luck away," firecrackers have been an intrinsic part of the Chinese New Year celebration for thousands of years. Yet, their contribution to air and noise pollution has always incurred debates about whether they should be banned. This year, the debate has been intensified by the severe air quality crisis many cities faced right before the festival. TLNLogo_Horizontal-215 MORE FROM TLN China Isn't Apple's Only Supplier A Confusing Flowchart for the Confused Chinese Traveler Chinese Web Users Weigh in on North Korea's Nuclear Test Towards the end of January, citizens in Beijing endured several waves of what many Western media outlets dubbed "airpocalypse." On January 29, the air quality index released by the U.S. embassy in Beijing peaked at 526, beyond "hazardous" and literally off the charts. Responding to the environmental disaster, many Web users spontaneously advocated to stop setting off firecrackers during the upcoming festival. A comment tweeted by Shi Shusi(@石述思), the editor-in-chief of the Workers' Daily, is representative. "Entering middle age, I suddenly realize that the majority of my family consists of seniors and children. So although I've loved firecrackers since childhood, I decided to quit using them for the sake of both tranquility for my family and clearer air. I request earnestly that everyone set off fewer firecrackers, and while doing it, try to keep your distance from seniors and children." As the anti-firecracker web users' voices multiplied, accounts of official media joined the campaign. China Central Television's Economics and Finance Channel (@央视财经) is one of them. "The air quality in Beijing has become poorer and poorer as we approach the New Year. If we still set off firecrackers, the air quality will not be not restorable. Here, our channel

" We evaluate the role that cities play on individual productivity in China. First, we show that location explains a large share of nominal wage disparities. Second, even after controlling for individual and -firms characteristics and instrumenting city characteristics, the estimated elasticity of wage with respect to employment density is about three times larger than inWestern countries. Land area and industrial specialisation also play a significant role whereas the access to external markets does not. Therefore, large agglomeration economies prevail in China and they are more localised than in Western countries. Third, we -find evidence of a large positive impact of the local share of migrants on local workers'wages. Overall, these results strongly support the productivity gains that can be expected from further migration and urbanisation in China. "

China's Real Estate Bubble Bursts -- Good or Bad? The latest outlook from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says China's real estate market fluctuations are a major threat to its growth next year.

As China's real estate market continues to cool, experts have warned that a collapse in the market could spell disaster for the economy. This poses a dilemma for the Chinese regime. Sky-high property prices can fuel social tensions, but a reverse of the property boom could damage Beijing's bid to maintain the economy.

In a new short documentary, 'Hopeful', Jonah Kessel shows the work of environmental NGO Friends of Nature in using new laws to hold companies accountable for their pollution. The film focuses on a Yunnan "cancer village" and Friends of Nature activist Chang Cheng, who says: "Sometimes trying to protect China's natural habitat feels like playing a game, because we have an opponent. Every time we advance, so do they. Sometimes it feels as though we cannot move at all. But there are still those of us who remain hopeful."

n the spring of 2012 staff from the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester travelled to China and Colombia.

The story is about 'Integrated Fish Farming', using traditional methods that have been adapted to modern circumstances, and opportunities to apply these as a low ecological footprint fish farming model.

This blog contains information and ideas about the interrelationship of religion, nature and modernity with a focus on China. The underlying premises are that religious values and ideas are key resources for constructing a sustainable future for the human species, and that nowhere on the planet is this more important than China. China is the world's largest country by population, the second largest economy in real GDP terms, and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.