Pu’er city in Southwest China’s Yunnan province received approval from the National Forestry Bureau inspection group to be listed as a National Forest City on Nov 24, according to the Pu’er Daily.

The city’s vice mayor, Yang Weidong, received the award on behalf of Pu’er. Some 98 Chinese cities have so far been listed as national forest cities, while another 78 have applied to enter the list.

Pu’er is famed as the “Natural Oxygen Bar” of Yunnan province. Authorities there have made efforts to develop itself into a green city since 2012. The city was honored with the title of “National Environmental Sanitation City” between 2012 and 2014. Statistics show that the city’s green industries – those that are largely free from pollution, such as the tea industry - ac-count for over 90 percent of the city’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Pu’er is rich in biodiversity; its forest coverage exceeds 68.70 percent and green cov-erage rate exceeds 80 percent in the city center. 16 protected natural areas are located in out-lying areas of the city.