Kunming is reportedly competing to be named one of China’s National Clean Cities. Streets are cleaner than in Berkeley or San Francisco. Numerous times each day we hear the ‘happy birthday’ tune from the street-washing trucks cruising up and down Dong Fong Dong Lu oblivious to the 100-year drought in progress. Watch for more about the drought in a future post.

Sidewalks are also clean. Pedestrians throw trash into the numerous bins (including some marked recycle) along every sidewalk. Unlike in Berkeley and San Francisco, the trash bins are emptied regularly and never overflowing. Battalions of workers use ‘grabbers’ to pick up cigarette butts and stray trash from the streets.

So what is the National Clean City award? According to an article in China Daily, Lu Guoxian, secretary of the City Committee of the Communist Party of China, declared “The building of a sanitary city is not only for the title, its fundamental purpose is to improve people’s well-being.”