The Dianchi Lake Wetland in Kunming won the "best wetland" campaign that CCTV initiated on June 21 and conducted through Weibo.

The wetland won the votes of over half of the 210,000 netizens involved, soundly defeating the other nine entrants, which included the Heilongjiang Zhalong Wetland, Qinghai Lake Wetland and Jilin Changbai Mountain Wetland.

Kunming has built 14 wetlands around Dian Lake and conceded 30 square kilometers of ponds and arable land, expanding its water area by 11.5 square kilometers and building 36 square kilometers of ecological wetland and forest belt.

Kunming has formed a closed ecology zone with an 80 percent forest coverage rate along the Dianchi lake side. It has also accelerated restoration of the biodiversity and ecological functions in its major wetlands such as Haidong Wetland Park, and decreased its major pollutants including Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) by 15 to 30 percent.

By Qiu Guizhen and edited by Peter Nordinger