Shen Xiaoming spends most of his spare time helping the Shenzhen Dapeng Coral Conservation Volunteer Federation, an NGO he and his partners established in October 2014.

Over the past several years, Shen has been working to improve the marine ecology in Shenzhen's Dapeng New District, an area known for its natural environment and tourism.

Shen, formerly a media professional, started the cause after being struck by the sharp difference between the coral from Malaysia and Dapeng.

"Most Chinese people have little knowledge about the marine environment. They think it is something irrelevant to them and therefore have little awareness of protecting it. We want to change that situation," he said.

The NGO is cultivating divers with the ability to assess the coral's health and protect it. There are a great number of people who have diving licenses, but they have little knowledge about how to protect the organism, Shen said.

"We have trained the first group of seven or eight tutors so far. They are all professional divers. The tutors will impart their knowledge to others so that there will be more coral protectors," he said.

The campaign has already had positive effects. Since April 2017, the divers have carried out eight seabed cleaning activities and cleaned up over 310 kilograms of garbage.

The federation is promoting marine knowledge in Shenzhen schools. All primary schools in Dapeng New District have introduced lessons on coral conservation, involving thousands of students. The organization is currently in discussions with the city's education authorities to expand the lessons citywide.

As one of the first special economic zones to be established since China's reform and opening-up in 1978, Shenzhen has become known as an economic powerhouse and an innovation hub. But it is also striving to lead the country in ecological conservation. The city aims to become a demonstration city for ecological development by 2020.

In Dapeng New District, the officials' performance is not judged by gross domestic product, but by gross ecological product. The appraisal system was set up to ensure that economic growth is not achieved at the expense of the environment.

In 2005, Shenzhen mapped out 974 square kilometers－nearly half the city's land area－in which development and construction are highly restricted. The city government has been providing subsidies to locals in Dapeng to offset the economic loss caused. More than 16,000 local people have benefited directly from the program so far.

Shenzhen is also making great strides in improving its water quality. Last year, the city poured 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) into projects dealing with water pollution.

The city's Party Chief Wang Weizhong has promised to spare no efforts in solving the matter, so that all the rivers in the city will be clean by the end of 2019.