In Harbin, China-known as the "Ice City"-a government initiative aims to curb energy wasted to keep ventilated houses and buildings warm.

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Ma Jinxing’s apartment has a new hat and a five-layer coat. Standing in her living room, her slim frame hidden in a purple sweater, Ma is passionate about her new wardrobe.

In northeastern China, the winter temperature plummeted to -40ºF (-40º C), and the city began to take old, well-ventilated buildings seriously for renovation. Last year, Harbin (pictured) spent $1.1 million to renovate 21 million square feet (2 million square meters) of residential buildings-adding five new layers of wall insulation, and better windows and roofs. Tenants like Ma Affectionately described as a characteristic of this building. New "winter clothes".

"Before, the temperature in this room was 12 degrees [Celsius, or 53 degrees Fahrenheit]. Now it is 18 degrees [Celsius, or 64 degrees Fahrenheit]," said the 76-year-old horse, looking at the apartment happily. For Ma, who runs a small Chinese pharmacy outside the front hall with her husband, this change means that both her and her customers have fewer cold days.

The challenge of keeping warm

The hustle and bustle of Beijing’s traffic and the smoking chimneys over the Pearl River Delta may be the most representative images of China’s environmental problems.

(Related: "Towards greener transportation on China's roads (and railways)")

But now, policy makers are increasingly turning their attention to the construction of China's northeast industrial zone. This is the country's cold rust belt. The cold front is drawn directly north from the frozen tundra of Siberia. The residence needs heating for six months of the year.

After all, in developed countries, 40% of carbon dioxide emissions come from the heating, cooling and power supply of buildings. In China, the construction industry absorbs nearly 30% of China's energy-this number has tripled in 30 years and is still growing.

In 2006, as part of China's most recent five-year plan, China pledged to reduce overall energy intensity by 20%. This is an ambitious goal, and local officials are scrambling to achieve it by the end of 2010-closing factories, and even briefly closing hospitals in the last resort to meet their quotas.

But Mark Levine, head of the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy, said that if China does reach the 20% target, it will not be attributed to the improvement of the construction industry. "The effort in this area is very bad," Levine said. He pointed out that state subsidies are too small to inspire efforts at the municipal level. Cities usually use funds to install electricity meters instead of making more expensive renovations.

But there are some notable exceptions, including the largest city and provincial capital in Heilongjiang Province, Harbin, with a population of nearly 10 million, often referred to as the "ice city." Harbin officials predict that the renovation activities in 2010 will increase the energy efficiency of the affected areas by 50%. Other cities are also working to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, such as Qingdao in the east of Shandong Province (map) and Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province in the northwest (map). Across China, officials quickly noticed an improvement: According to government data, compliance with existing building codes has increased to at least 98%.

However, Ping Yowargana, an energy analyst at Azure International in Beijing, said that such progress may not "inevitably lead to energy conservation, because the standard of living is also improving." China is adding new buildings at a rate of 22 billion square feet (2 billion new square meters) every year-which means pouring more concrete, making more steel, and a lot of additional energy consumption. At the same time, residents today expect more air conditioning, lighting, and heat than ever before. Therefore, even today's buildings that meet the specifications, their energy consumption still exceeds that of their predecessors with water leakage and poor insulation.

There is also the fact that China’s heating sector is inefficient, including the pricing system that does not generate energy-saving incentives. For example, Ms. Ma pays a fixed fee of 200 yuan ($30) per year for heating-this fee is based on the size of her residence rather than her energy usage. This is why the horse will not turn off the thermostat anytime soon.

"It's warm and comfortable inside now," she said. "The government treats us very well."

Need deeper changes

Levine said that heating price reforms — already in place in some regions — and providing better funding for retrofits may become priorities in the next five-year plan. He said that it is not clear whether China's central planners can effectively push the country out of the heavy and energy-intensive industries that promote its development. "They must carry out structural reforms to the economy," he said. "And so far, this hasn't happened yet."

Back in Harbin, some residents continue to be skeptical about the renovation project. Although the project was funded by the government, some of Ma’s neighbors complained bitterly that the construction was sloppy and the materials were not good over the years. At the same time, in Shanghai, a fire broke out in a building that was being renovated, killing 58 people and causing an uproar in the local area. All other renovation projects were temporarily suspended.

"Now, the government hopes to accomplish the goal faster, Chinese style. There are big goals," said Jin Ruidong, an expert on building energy conservation at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He said that China’s national energy efficiency goals are ambitious, and the municipalities are just focusing on keeping up.

"There is not much time to talk to people and make them understand," Jin said. "The local government must continue to move faster."

(Related: "Missed Opportunities for Big Energy Savings"

Te-Ping Chen is a writer living in Sichuan, China.

(See photos of China submitted to National Geographic by users like you, including the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival.)

This story has been changed from the previous version to correct the conversion of -40ºF to Celsius.

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