
Citizens vie to touch the medal for the 2007 Habitat Scroll of Honor, presented by the United Nations to Nanning on October 5, 2007. [Photocnsphoto]

Citizens rejoice at the sight of the 2007 Habitat Scroll of Honor medal presented to Nanning by the United Nations on October 5, 2007. [Photo:cnsphoto]
A mass celebration was held Monday in honor of the city of Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which was awarded the 2007 UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award last Friday in Mexico.
The award is in recognition of Nanning's effort to improve the living environment of its citizens.
The city has over the recent years built some sixty green gardens and a downtown forest park that covers over 930,000 square meters of space. It has helped resolve housing problems for over 30, 000 medium and lower income families.
The city has also developed China's first Integrated City Emergency Response System to streamline under one roof all the city's police, fire, paramedic and traffic accident reporting systems. Along with 30 other non-emergency public services, these were previously managed by a variety of different administrative departments.
The Habitat Scroll of Honor is awarded each year on World Habitat Day, which falls every year on the first Monday of October. The award has been designed by the United Nations to raise global awareness on the state of human settlements.