Posters advocating a green lifestyle by pupils in Yidu, Central China's Hubei Province Photo: Shan Jie/GT

China initiated its first Green Life Day on Sunday, aiming to raise awareness of protecting the environment.

A Green Lifestyle Rulebook and a Green Life Yidu Direction were released Sunday during the first Green Life Day activity held at Yidu county-level city in Yichang of Central China's Hubei Province.

China Environmental Protection Foundation and Yichang government hosted the activity.

The rulebook, which combined global experience and local features, sets more than 60 rules from eight aspects in daily life.

It suggests government design the goal of a green lifestyle and work on related infrastructure and policies. It also demands companies cut emissions and the public choose green products.

"The Green Life Day activity will help raise the public's quality on ecology and environment and foster a positive morality and behavior," Dong Wenxuan, chief at the division of general affairs in the Department of Communications and Education of the Ministry of Environment and Ecology, said on Sunday.

The day marked China entering "a new stage of ecological civilization construction," Qu Geping, China's first environment minister, said in a congratulatory letter on Sunday.

Thirty cities signed onto the Green Life Yidu Direction on Sunday.

The city of Yichang, with a forest coverage of 65 percent, has long been promoting a green lifestyle.

The government built a bicycle trail connecting the city center and suburbs and has also been advocating residents eat more vegetables and less meat.