The Office of National Sustainable Communities (NSC) field visited the Zhaodong NSC in Heilongjiang Province lately. The city of Zhaodong set up its pilot zone for comprehensive social development in 1993 and is among the first county-level cities that engage in the pilot work. That pilot zone took on the name of National Sustainable Community in 1997.

For years the Zhaodong NSC has been running the “pyramid projects”. It scored success in developing the clean energy industry with flagship enterprises as leaders and corn as the major material. Assets worth RMB 40 million have been revitalized, with over 3,000 people employed. That was a significant boost to the local economy and farmers’ income.