Recently, the State Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) officially named Shantou as the "National Garden City", which marked Shantou City finally achieved great accomplishment on the history of building the national garden city for 11 years, adding another name card at state level. The National Garden City is the comprehensive evaluation on the economic and social development level in an all-round way for a city or a region. In 1998, the CPC Shantou municipal committee and the municipal government put forward the goal to build the national garden city; in 2003, Shantou adjusted the administrative area, and the urban area was expanded to 1956 square kilometers from the original 311 square kilometers, further increasing the difficulty of "garden city building" for Shantou City. According to the new situations and requirements, the CPC Shantou municipal committee and the municipal government adjusted the building ideas, enhanced the leadership, increased the input, took strong measures, and mobilized the power of the whole society to fully promote the building work of "National Garden City", and successfully passed the on-site test and evaluation of the MOHURD in 2009.

Source:Shantou Daily, Feb 22, 2010

　　近日，国家住房和城乡建设部正式命名我市为“国家园林城市”，这标志着我市11年创园历程终于喜结硕果，再添一国家级名片。国家园林城市是对一个城市、一个地区经济社会全面发展水平的综合评价。1998年市委、市政府提出创建国家园林城市的目标，2003年我市行政区划调整，市区面积由原来的311平方公里扩大到1956平方公里，使我市“创园”难度进一步加大。市委、市政府根据新形势和要求，调整创建思路，加强领导，加大投入，采取强有力措施，动员全社会力量，全力推进创建“国家园林城市”工作，并于2009年顺利通过国家住建部的现场考查和评审。

来源：汕头日报2010-2-22