Liwan District in Guangzhou used to suffer from heavy pollution. Now the situation improved a lot.

Liwan District has many heavy pollution industries, including cement factory, lacquer factory, copper factory, cigarette factory, power plant and small workshops... From 1992 to 1999, the local government completed 235 pollution treatment projects. 100 factories were shut down or relocated and 2,024 chimneys were torn down. Comparing with 1992, the SO2 emission reduced by 52%, soot emission reduced by 92%, powder dust emission reduced by 83%. Of the 442 restaurants with over 200 seats, 435 changed from burning oil to burning natural gas.

Each car, motorcycle, and bicycle repair shop in the area produces 5 kilograms of waste oil daily. Much of this oil is directly discharged into the Pearl River. The oil discharge can be as much as 2 tons everyday. The district government handed out waste oil recycling barrels to the repair shops. Over 7 tons of waste oil is recycled during the last half of last year.

The district also adopted measures to control noise pollution and strengthen forestation.