Beijing, this is my home

Editor’s note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up, and huge changes have been made in Beijing, capital of China, over the past 40 years. We have invited 40 foreign experts to participate in a series of interviews named “New Era, New Insight” jointly hosted by GMW.cn（The official website of Guangming Daily） and the Information Office of Beijing Municipality and share their “Beijing Stories”.

I first came to Beijing in 1996

The most obvious thing is that coal is used to heat the hutongs

The air was really dirty in winter. It’s grey

But now the winter of 2017 and 2018

I've never seen such a blue sky in Beijing. It’s really a big change

I opened my first own restaurant in 2003.

Our store is managed with the concept of sustainable development

We used a lot of recycled materials for decoration

For example, after the renovation of the hutongs, we used the waste wood

Other things like, the heavy use of plastic packaging is a major problem in the restaurant industry

We all use iron straws now

And I'll remind you on the menu

You told our waiter that you're out of lunch today

And no waste, I'll give you a discount.

In 2003, we started doing some of these projects

People are less engaged

But this one or two years is quite different,

Now we've told people why we use recycling,

Everyone agreed, and then supported us.

More obviously, young beijingers are more welcoming of such environmental concepts

I think the Chinese government has been taking environmental protection seriously in recent years.

I see many projects for environmental protection, which makes me very happy

The hot water we use

The government gave us a subsidy to switch to natural gas as an environmentally friendly way

Students from Peking University also cooperate with our company

They came to our company for an internship

Learn how to do environmentally friendly business models

So that's a pretty obvious change

I think the environmental benefits will become more apparent over the years

I really love China

I love Beijing

I really hope Beijing is a more and more environmentally friendly place,

because this is my hometown