BEIJING - The open-cut mining area of the Daye Iron Mine in Central China's Huangshi city -- Asia's biggest opencast mine - looks like a widely-open mouth of the Earth.

Dating back to 1780 years ago, the mine became a key resource supplier for China's industrialization, creating economic benefits as well as ecological ills.

It was commonly said that the sky, in Tieshan district and beyond, remained grey, partly due to the Daye Iron Mine.

Resource-rich Huangshi recorded rapid economic growth in the second half of last century, thanks to heavy investment in resource industries, including iron and steel.

But the shortage of exploitable mine as well as vegetation deterioration and environmental pollution, which became increasingly severe in 1990s, cast a shadow over the city's future.

Huangshi has been thinking about maintaining a balance between economic development and ecological protection. Decades of rapid economic development has turned Huangshi into a resource-exhausted city.

The Daye Iron Mine's open-cut area was turned into the country's first national ore park six years ago and has become a popular scenic spot with sculptures made from wasted equipment and accessories.

Conservation culture

Huangshi's experience with the Daye Iron Mine may well serve as an epitome of China's struggle in establishing an economy-ecology balance.

The ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has been clear about the significance of promoting a "conservation culture".

"(China will) promote a conservation culture by basically forming an energy- and resource-efficient and environment-friendly structure of industries, pattern of growth and mode of consumption," Hu Jintao, China's president and general secretary of the CPC Central Committee said at the start of the 17th CPC National Congress held in October 2007.

Officially writing "conservation culture" into the report of its national congress, a five-yearly political tone-setting event, the CPC is likely to reiterate this topic as a major task in its upcoming 18th National Congress scheduled for next month, according to observers.

In a July 23 speech given to provincial-level officials, Hu termed promoting a conservation culture as a strategic mission that will involve fundamental changes in the mode of production and the way of life. He vowed to put the concept into all aspects and sections of China's economic, political, and social development.

Yan Shuhan, a theoretical studies professor with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said it is especially noteworthy that in Hu's July speech, conservation culture was underlined as part of China's general plan for socialist construction.

That indicated the Party's deep understanding of the general plan of China's socialist construction, which consists of major missions not only in economic, political, cultural and social terms, but also in conservation culture, according to Yan.