On April 22 this year, Earth Day arrives in Guangdong against a backdrop that few outside the southern province of China might expect. Long defined by its breakneck urbanization and manufacturing might, Guangdong is now quietly writing a different story, one told not in GDP figures but in shades of green, blue, pink, and brown.
This year's Earth Day theme, "Our Power, Our Planet," frames the question of what ordinary places and ordinary people can do. Across Guangdong, the answers are already visible in a lake that supplies water to tens of millions, in dolphins returning to coastal waters, and in a single endangered bird spotted again on a muddy shore.
Green: Wanlv Lake, Heyuan
Wanlv Lake, also known as Xinfengjiang Reservoir, covers 370 square kilometers and holds water that consistently meets China's Class I surface water standards, the highest designation possible. It serves as a drinking water source for nearly 50 million people across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, supplying around 1.5 billion cubic meters annually. Authorities have enacted dedicated legislation to protect water quality in the reservoir.
Yellow: Heishan Terraces, Qingyuan
In Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County, tucked into the Nanling mountains, rice terraces carve the hillsides in layers that turn golden as harvest approaches. The crop is Simiao rice, a long-grain variety that has been cultivated here for more than 600 years and now enjoys national geographical indication protection. In 2025, the county planted about 6,167 hectares of Simiao rice, with the entire industrial chain generating an estimated 556 million yuan in output value. Much of the farming still follows methods that avoid synthetic pesticides. It is agriculture that looks backward in technique but forward in its alignment with modern ecological expectations.
Blue: Chinese White Dolphins, South China Sea
Off the coast of Guangdong, the Chinese white dolphin, often called the "panda of the sea", has become a barometer of marine health. The Pearl River Estuary Chinese White Dolphin National Nature Reserve hosts the largest population of the species in China, with around 1,100 individuals recorded in protected waters and approximately 2,500 across the broader estuary. A second major population of about 500, which is the world's second-largest known group, inhabits the waters off Zhanjiang's Leizhou Bay. Nationwide, seven reserves have been established for the species, six of them in Guangdong. In 2025, the dolphin was chosen as one of the official mascots for China's 15th National Games.
Purple: Luoding Windmill Mountain, Yunfu
At 1,137 meters above sea level, the ridges of Luoding in Yunfu are lined with 46 wind turbines, part of a clean-energy project that has turned the area into an unlikely tourist draw. The site attracts visitors for its cloud seas at dawn, its unobstructed views of the night sky, and the simple visual contrast of white blades turning against green slopes. Here, energy production coexists with recreation, and as a result, the mountain has become more accessible.
Orange: Mangrove Forest, Zhanjiang
At sunset, the tidal flats of Leizhou Bay glow orange. Among the wading birds foraging there is one of the planet's rarest: the spoon-billed sandpiper. Fewer than 600 individuals are believed to remain in the wild. In March 2025, researchers recorded 20 spoon-billed sandpipers at a single site within the Zhanjiang Mangrove National Nature Reserve, the highest single-day count in Guangdong in four years. These birds are part of a larger annual migration along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. During the 2025–2026 winter season, more than 300,000 migratory birds stopped in Guangdong's coastal wetlands, according to the provincial forestry bureau.
Red: Danxia Mountain, Shaoguan
Danxia Mountain gives its name to an entire geological category. Danxia landform, a term now used worldwide, refers to steep red cliffs and pillars formed from Cretaceous-era sandstone and conglomerate. The UNESCO-listed site in northern Guangdong remains the type locality for the phenomenon. The iron oxide in the rock gives the cliffs their distinctive reddish hue, which intensifies at sunrise and sunset. But the designation has also locked the area into a conservation framework that limits development, preserving a landscape that took tens of millions of years to form.
Pink: Haizhu National Wetland Park, Guangzhou
In Guangzhou's Haizhu District, a 3.2-kilometer corridor bordered by Bauhinia variegata blooms each spring in a shade of pink that feels almost urban, as if by design. The trees line paths through Haizhu National Wetland Park, a 1,100-hectare patch of green in the middle of a city of 18 million people. The park is one of the largest urban wetlands in China and functions as a flood buffer, a water purifier, and a habitat for more than 180 bird species.
Brown: Baitang Ancient Olive Eco-Park, Huizhou
Guangdong has registered more than 85,000 ancient and notable trees across the province. In places like the Baitang Thousand-Mu Ancient Olive Eco-Park in Boluo County, some trees have stood for centuries. Over the past three years, the province has established 55 ancient tree parks and 106 "green and beautiful" ancient tree villages. These groves are not just botanical remnants; they are legally protected and monitored through a province-wide registration system.
From wind turbines on mountain ridges to spoon-billed sandpipers probing tidal mud, Guangdong's Earth Day palette is not an abstract color wheel. It is a living testament of what "Our Power, Our Planet" can mean when the camera pans away from the conference halls and out across the land itself.
Author | Feng Huiting
Video & Poster | Feng Huiting
Photo | Nanfang Daily
