An international energy saving and environmental protection exhibition held in Beijing between June 12 and June 15 shows to visitors how they can start with the trivials in their daily life to make a big difference to the environment.

In the interactive area of the exhibition, visitors can choose different ways of life by touching the screen and calculate their own carbon emissions. For instance, they can choose their ways of commuting from walking, bicycling, using tools of public transport or driving a car, and compare which is the greenest.

"The interactive area is one of the highlights of this exhibition," a guide told Xinhua. "It's so interesting and vivid that everyone wants a try."

Among the huge visiting crowd, about one fourth are aged Beijingers who are keen to live a simple and thrift life.

"Penny-pinching has become my habit not just because I want to save money but also because I hate to see anything that causes waste," Madam Ma, a visitor, told Xinhua.

"But nowadays, young people are less sensitive to wasting habits. Each day my husband and I cook as much as we eat, but my son tends to keep the shower water running when he goes to do something else," she complained.
Like Madam Ma, many visitors come to the exhibition to find useful information on saving energy.

Many chic products are unveiled in the exhibition, such as high-efficiency vegetable washers, energy-saving lamps, power-saving socket, geothermal collecting system, solar energy storage system, temperature saving glass coat, plug-in electric cars, and biomass pelletized fuel.

"Heat supply in northern China is one of the big headaches for the country because it is an energy monster," said Guo Hongyu, managing director of Beijing-based Wuhangxing Solar Technology Development Cooperation.

"Take Beijing for example, heat supply for the city in one day is tantamount to the energy used by 2 million vehicles for a day," he said.

Guo suggests strongly that people use solar energy that is inexhaustible and clean.

He said the popular solar energy water heaters which are normally seen on the roofs of houses and buildings are product using solar energy technology in its primary stage, but starting from the elementary is a must.

Though purchasing a set of solar energy collectors is comparatively expensive for a household at the beginning, but the cost will be paid back in about four years, Guo says.

Zhang Yanyou, chief executive of the exhibition, said that: "The theme of this exhibition is low carbon technology and green economy. But the most important thing we do here is to disseminate the environment-friendly ideas and corresponding ways of life as well as ways of consumption."

Zhang, also deputy director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, said the priorities of the local government in the coming years are adjusting the industrial structure, promoting service sectors that cost less energy and cutting energy consumption in such fields as construction, transportation and manufacturing.

The government has offered economic incentive to encourage companies to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions consequently, the official said.

Besides energy consumption, water is another major concern for cities like Beijing.

When asked about what is the rarest resource for Beijing, water, gas, or electricity, Tong Lizhi, a female staff with Beijing Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Center, said, "It is water."

"Water shortage is so serious in Beijing that other areas need to cut water supply of their own to meet the need of Beijing," Tong said.

It is quite necessary to usher in progressive water charge system, and the local government is about to start the practice this year, she added.

To avoid the would-be disaster that the last drop of water on the planet is the tear of the humanbeing, people need to act now, Madam Ma said, sharing with Tong's views.