BEIJING - The mayor of Beijing said Monday that more efforts would be made to green the city in the new year, including creating more parks, planting more trees and expanding greenbelt areas downtown.

The annual government work report, delivered by Chen Jining at the opening meeting of the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, said 1,600 hectares of land would be vacated for greening purposes in 2019.

The city has planned to add 16,667 hectares of forest this year, in addition to the 17,933 hectares completed in 2018, according to the report.

A total of 1,683 hectares of land were vacated for greening in the last year, Chen said. Another 28 city leisure parks and 121 mini parks were added, bringing the coverage of parks within a radius of 500 meters to 80 percent citywide.

An area of 66.7 hectares of the “green core” of the city, located in Tongzhou District, has been greened in the past year, together with the creation of several other wetland parks in and around the city, Chen said.

Suburban districts including Yanqing, Huairou and Miyun will step up applications to be national-level forest cities through the establishment of a green development fund and green bonds to attract social capital, the report said