Xixia county named 'Natural Oxygen Bar of China'

2018 Natural Oxygen Bar of China press conference at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Sept 26. [Photo/cnr.cn]

Xixia county, Nanyang was awarded the title of Natural Oxygen Bar of China on Sept 26 along with Xin county and Lushi county. All three are located in Henan province.

The list of 2018 Natural Oxygen Bar of China winners was released at a press conference held by China Meteorological Service Association (CMA) Public Meteorological Service Center, Chinese Weather, and mafengwo.com at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Sixty-four regions across the country have been awarded the title since it began in 2016.

The Natural Oxygen Bar of China is organized by the China Meteorological Service Association and declared voluntarily by regions every year. Qualified areas are recognized and licensed following standard procedure and a comprehensive evaluation of the ecological environment quality. This includes looking at climate, air quality, atmospheric negative oxygen ion level, ecological and tourism development planning and support for tourism and tourists.

In addition, there are five main evaluation indexes: climate comfortable duration, annual negative oxygen ion concentration, average annual air quality index (AQI), proportion of excellent and fine air accounts for the whole year, and forest coverage.

The competition aims to find areas with good ecological environments and support ecotourism, healthy tourism and global tourism to promote local economic development. It also promotes positive measures to reduce and mitigate damage to the environment and advocate green development.

Xixia county is located at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain in the midstream of the Xishui River. It has rich resources and is particularly abundant in medicinal plants and fruit, with a forest coverage rate of over 80.3 percent. It has an average annual negative oxygen ion content of 3,600 per cubic centimeter and over the years has won many honorary titles, among them the National Garden County, National Health County and National Civilized City.

The title of 2018 Natural Oxygen Bar of China is an affirmation of the green development taking place in the area and an incentive to further develop ecotourism in Xixia.