Nearly 2 million Beijing citizens and servicemen planted 2.39 million trees on Saturday, the 24th Beijing voluntary tree planting day, Sunday's Beijing Youth Daily reports.

The volunteers also cleaned 13.1 million square meters of lawns and forested areas and dispatched 1.16 million pamphlets on the importance of afforestation.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior state leaders also took part in the voluntary tree planting activity at Beijing's Olympic Forest Park on Saturday.

Official figures showed that 168 million trees were planted in the 1981-2007 period in the Chinese capital, where air quality and sandstorm were long-time headaches.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2008)