Since China’s Reform and Opening Up began in 1978, rapid industrialisation has brought major environmental challenges, from water and air pollution to mining, energy use, and resource extraction.

This website traces the major turning points in China’s environmental history from 1978 to the present. Rather than presenting policy as a list of laws and targets, it asks why each policy emerged, what tension it tried to address, and how its implementation affected individuals and communities.

By connecting national developments with specific cases of factory closures, unemployment, water shortages, power cuts, and other local consequences, the project aims to make environmental history easier to understand at both the policy and human level.