Hordes of visitors come to the Beihai Silver Beach to enjoy a cool time by the sea. [Photo by Xu Tianbao/Guangxi Daily]

Beihai Silver Beach recently secured a top accolade when it was included in the second group of 12 National Beautiful Bays - making it the first and only one ever so recognized in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Officials from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the list during an Aug 28 news conference.

Beihai Silver Beach has a coastline of about 108 kilometers and a sea area of 454 square kilometers. It is home to the Silver Beach National Tourism Resort and the Coastal National Wetland Park.

In recent years, Beihai has invested about 18.5 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in various improvement measures and as a result, the proportion of excellent water quality in the bay has remained stable at 100 percent, while the area’s biodiversity has become increasingly abundant.

Currently, there are a total of 19 species of mangroves, 195 species of birds and 207 species of benthic organisms.

While enhancing the city's beauty, the development of industries such as hotels, finance and technology has also been boosted. Their cumulative operating income has reached 15.5 billion yuan and the tax contributions have reached 1.25 billion yuan.

The selection of National Beautiful Bays has five set indicators - the proportion of excellent water quality, cleanliness, protection of marine biodiversity, protection of coastal wetlands and shorelines and environmental conditions of seashores and coastal tourism resorts.

In 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the first batch of eight excellent examples of beautiful bays.