After seven years Wo Yafei can finally enjoy the fresh bayberries she planted on a hill near her village thanks to the closure of an iron plant, the source of pollution to her fruit and the local environment.

The 51-year-old woman from Housuo Village, Ningbo City of eastern coastal Zhejiang Province said, "We used to eat the bayberries after picking them from the trees without washing. However, after the factory was built in 2004, people worried that the polluted fruit was harmful to their health and no one dared to eat them. Most of the village fruit rotted on the trees."

She recalled, "The air smelt strange and a thick layer of black dust would fall on the windowsill if the window was open for a long time."

Water in a local river was also contaminated.

Several months after Huaguang Stainless Steel Co. Ltd., started production, villagers demanded from the managers that they solve the pollution problem. However, they were beaten by the workers.

The protestors then decided to seal off the road to the plant. This failed to stop production.

The government of Beilun District, where Housuo is located, on several occasions ordered the company to overhaul its waste treatment system to meet environmental protection standards. The company did little.

It was eventually shut down last year, after the villagers went to Hangzhou, the seat of the provincial capital to protest against the pollution.

"We can resume our comfortable life now," Wo said.

The story of Wo's village illustrates the increasing awareness of environmental protection among citizens and their efforts for clean air and water.

A report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) last month emphasized the importance of ecological progress and advocated the building of a "beautiful China" in the country's development plan.

Beilun, which neighbors the East China Sea, has a large port and a lot of heavy polluting industries.

After years of development with heavy consumption of energy and emission of pollutants, the district is now trying to achieve both industrial development and ecological progress.

"We should use our iron fists to deal with polluting projects, even at the cost of losing an industrial product worth 3 billion yuan (about 477 million US dollars) and shut down technologically backward plants," said Hua Wei, head of the Beilun district government.

In recent years, the district has closed more than 10 medium-sized and large companies and 62 small factories, and spent nearly 10 billion yuan (about 1.59 billion US dollars) on handling industrial waste. The forestry coverage rate of the district is 48.9 percent.

"The air quality of Beilun is the best this year since monitoring began seven years ago," said Zhang Hongfeng, deputy director of the Beilun District Environmental Protection Bureau.

"Environment resource is a competitive strength and productive force," she told Xinhua.

The Ningbo Hangzhou Bay Zone, north of Ningbo, boasts a state-level export processing zone and a provincial-level economic development zone. A 43.5-square-km wetland, not very far from the development area, has various species of wild birds.

Long Guozheng, an official of the investment and cooperation section of the zone said, "We will never allow heavy polluting projects to be built in the zone."

Zhejiang has set the goal of building an ecological province. Yet challenges lie ahead.

Data with the provincial environmental protection department showed water of one third of the provincial rivers was rated Category V last year, despite some improvements.

China rates its water quality from Category I to Category V, with the latter being too toxic even to touch.

Xu Zhen, director of Zhejiang Provincial Environmental Protection Department, said stricter environmental protection requirements would be imposed to promote ecological progress.

According to a report on China's environment in 2011, the overall quality is stable but the situation is still grave.

The report, jointly issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Land and Resources in June this year, highlighted the pollution conditions of rivers, lakes and rural areas.

"The developed coastal areas should gradually upgrade its industries and avoid transferring outdated sectors to the middle and western regions of the country," said Xu Yaotong, professor of politics with the Chinese Academy of Governance.

"We need a beautiful China with sustainable development rather than a dirty country with short-term development," added Xu.