North China's Shanxi province will continue to promote large-scale land greening, the development of forest cities and villages -- as well as the protection and restoration of grasslands in 2020 -- with a goal of completing afforestation covering around 2,666 square kilometers, local officials said. 

This year, the province will focus on strengthening the Yellow River Shelter Forest and the green barrier around Beijing and Hebei province to achieve improvements in forest coverage, urban and rural greening and in the ecological sector. The forest coverage is expected to exceed 23.5 percent, officials said. 

They said the province achieved remarkable improvements in forestry and grassland industries in the past year. 

It planted trees covering over 3,473 sq km and the total output of local dried fruit woods increased by nearly 400 million kilograms compared with that of 2018.