Lujiazui celebrated Earth Hour on March 23. Nearly 80 skyscrapers, including Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center, Aurora Plaza and Hang Seng Bank Tower turned off their lights at 8:30pm.

More than 600 Chinese and foreign children gathered at Oriental Pearl Square to welcome Earth Hour. They performed dances, waved glow sticks and read proposals for environmental protection.

Besides the skyscrapers, all hotels of Jinjiang Inn, one of the top brands for economy chain lodging in China， turned off their outer wall floodlights.

Earth Hour is one of the biggest worldwide campaigns organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour from 8:30pm to 9:30pm.

It is held to raise awareness and encourage action against climate change. It usually falls on the last Saturday in March. Last year, Earth Hour involved over 6,000 cities in 150 countries around the world, including 124 Chinese cities.

People participate in the Earth Hour celebration in Shanghai on March 23. Photo by Zhang Ming / Xinhua

A child writes her name as part of a signature campaign for the Earth Hour celebration on March 23. Photo by Chen Fei / Xinhua