As part of its war on pollution, the municipal government has ramped up efforts to plant trees, allowing no more forest processing plants. Since state-owned forest-plants rely on logging to support their employees, the municipal government spent 600 million yuan ($88 million) dismissing 4,911 workers last year, keeping only 2,000 employees for daily maintenance. Now the forest coverage in Heyuan takes up 77.7 percent.

The Heyuan model

In selecting industries and businesses, Heyuan has pledged to follow its own course, one that is quite different from those of Shenzhen and Dongguan, the province's second and fourth largest cities in terms of GDP last year.

Shenzhen is an innovation-oriented city featuring hi-tech industries, the electronic information industry in particular, while Dongguan is China's largest export-oriented manufacturing hub that makes everything from toys to computer products.

After more than two decades of development, companies and factories in the two cities have to either upgrade their production or relocate to save on soaring land and labor costs.

This has offered less developed cities in northeast Guangdong, such as Heyuan and Meizhou, an unprecedented opportunity for development.

"We will greenlight only businesses in industries that have limited pollution or pollution that can be easily treated, such as mobile phone and mold base manufacturing, garments and beverages," Liu said.

According to the mayor, companies in Heyuan will be within an hour's ride from their suppliers and retailers in the Pearl River Delta by 2015, when six expressways and the inter-city light rail that spans the delta and stops in Heyuan will be in service and further cut their transportation costs.

But the global financial crisis has created woes for local companies. Manufacturers with operations in Heyuan have witnessed a 15-percent decrease in orders, and 40 percent of them are running losses.

"We will cast off the shackles and win freedom in working out a blueprint for Heyuan during the financial crisis," said Chen Jianhua, Secretary of the Heyuan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

With its focus on the future, Heyuan is in a good position to pursue its dream of green growth. The municipal government has made huge investments in vocational training schools. They plan to increase the high school enrollment rate from the current 54 percent to 85 percent and make vocational graduates account for 40 percent of the total by 2010.