Greener Living Becomes Part of Everyday Life in China’s Tianjin

Dragon Media News Desk

A South African family visiting north China’s Tianjin Municipality in search of relief from the summer heat found something beyond cooler temperatures: a city where greener choices have increasingly become part of everyday life.

Tuane van der Merwe, an English teacher who has lived in China for three and a half years, was showing her parents around Tianjin during one of their regular visits. What caught their attention was the way greenery, clean-energy transport and convenient public services were integrated into the urban environment.

Across the city, pocket parks can be found along streets and near residential neighborhoods, while greenways connect communities and public green spaces remain within easy reach of residents.

“In the cities here, you can see the city and nature together as one,” Van der Merwe said. “That makes the air cleaner and makes the environment healthier.”

The family experienced another side of Tianjin’s natural environment when they travelled north to Jizhou District, where dense urban streets gradually gave way to wooded hills, rural landscapes and homestays.

For Van der Merwe, protecting such natural spaces remains important even as cities incorporate more greenery into everyday urban life.

“There has to be some space for city people to come and relax,” she said.

Official figures show that green coverage in China’s urban built-up areas has exceeded 43 percent, while per capita park green space has reached 15.91 square metres. During the first half of this year, construction began on more than 2,800 pocket parks and 2,450 kilometres of urban greenways. About 7,500 hectares of urban parks and green spaces were also renovated or upgraded.

For Van der Merwe, however, the most striking feature was that greenery was not confined to major parks or scenic destinations. Nature appeared to have been incorporated into ordinary surroundings wherever the family travelled.

“Nature is a big part of it,” she said.

Green surroundings were only one element of the family’s search for comfort during the summer. At their homestay in Jizhou, they switched on the air conditioner and quickly found relief from the heat.

“China is hot for us in summer, but the air-conditioning system works perfectly,” Van der Merwe said. “I’m not overheating.”

Behind such everyday comfort is a power system increasingly capable of incorporating renewable energy.

Liu Chang, an official responsible for new-energy trading management at the Tianjin Power Exchange Center, said reliable grid support and the increasing supply of green electricity were essential to maintaining comfortable and dependable electricity use.

As power-grid technology improves and green-electricity trading expands, more clean electricity is being incorporated into the power system to serve households and businesses, according to Liu.

By the end of July, Tianjin had traded 15.77 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity in 2026, accounting for 41.46 percent of its directly traded electricity.

China is also working to make its national power system greener while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Under a plan for the 2026–2030 period issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration in July, non-fossil energy is expected to account for 50 percent of electricity generation by 2030.

The power system is also expected to become capable of integrating more than 2.8 billion kilowatts of installed new-energy capacity.

The Van der Merwe family encountered the same green transition on Tianjin’s roads. New-energy vehicles have become a common sight, while electric buses operate across the city. Shared bicycles provide an option for shorter journeys, with subways, buses, ride-hailing services and high-speed rail offering additional alternatives.

Van der Merwe said the range of transport choices stood out because they combined convenience with lower-emission travel.

“You don’t have to have your own car. You don’t have to pay a lot of money to get to a place,” she said. “You can rent a bike from the street, you can use the bus, you can go by subway, or you can just order a ride-hailing car from Didi.”

According to China’s Ministry of Transport, more than 200 million passenger journeys are made through green modes of transport every day. These include around 100 million trips by urban rail transit, another 100 million by bus and about 24 million by shared bicycle.

Across their journey, the family found that many of the greener choices they encountered were not special showcases but established parts of ordinary life. Parks were located close to residential communities, public transport was widely available, and reliable electricity supported everyday comfort.

The family had travelled to Tianjin primarily to escape the summer heat. By the end of the trip, however, their understanding of “cool” had expanded beyond mountain breezes and air conditioning to include the greener urban environment, cleaner energy, convenient transport and closer integration of nature into daily life.