China's low-carbon initiatives in full swing ahead of Earth Hour

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Forbidden City in Beijing will go dark for the "Earth Hour" on Saturday night, together with other world-famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Empire State Building in New York.

China has for the second year joined the annual global environment campaign "Earth Hour" initiated by the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF). The campaign calls on families and buildings to turn off the lights for one hour on the last Saturday night of March.

"It is a global show and the largest-scale action art to raise the public awareness of climate change. We hope the one-hour darkness can light up people's minds," said the Chinese Children's Environmental Education Programme (CCEEP) on its official blog Wednesday as it urged schools and children to join the movement.

Also posted on the blog were pictures drawn by children on the theme of environmental protection.

"A candle-light weekend can be energy-saving and romantic," said one slogan in shaky handwriting on one of the pictures.

The CCEEP, backed by United Nations Environment Programme and sponsored by Luo Hong, CEO of the country's largest bakery chain, Holiland.

The "Earth Hour" campaign has attracted more than 2,500 cities across the world.

Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, was the first city to announce its participation in the 2010 "Earth Hour", with the giant panda Mei Lan appointed as a special ambassador for the movement.

Some 16 Chinese city governments have pledged to take part in the event that promotes a low-carbon lifestyle to citizens.

Major online portals, including sina.com and ifeng.com, launched special web pages to attract the interest of China's 384 million Internet users. The domestic search leader Baidu even invited users to locate themselves on its map.

"China has the largest population of Internet users in the world. The coverage of its Web sites and online media will help the 'Earth Hour' become the world's largest-scale environmental activity," said Dermot O'Gorman, WWF's China Country Representative.

China's younger generation, especially college students born in the 1980's, are seen as a force promoting environmental protection and low-carbon lifestyles in China.