Chinese, Japanese Cities Join Hands in Environmental ProtectionZhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, has established a sisterly relationship with the Japanese city of Minamata to work together in protecting the environment.Zhangjiagang is the first Chinese city to win the title of model city in environmental protection. Minamata, located in the west of Japan's Kyushu Island, is known for a kind of Minamata disease, which is the result of sea water pollution from local industrial waste water. The disease had plagued local residents for several decades, killing some 1,000 people. It took the local government several decades of efforts to finally resolve the issue in 1996. Today, Minamata is clean and beautiful again and has become a model city for environmental protection in Japan. |
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