Huairou, Beijing

Huairou District (Simplified Chinese: 怀柔区; Traditional Chinese: 懷柔區; Hanyu Pinyin: Huáiróu Qū) is situated at northeast Beijing. Huairou District, covering an area of 2,557.3 square kilometers, is divided into seven towns and 14 townships with a population of 260,000. It is 50 kilometers from the city center; 90 percent of it is mountainous area. Its major agricultural products are chestnuts, walnuts,hawthorns,sweet pears, and apricots.

Huairou District is one of the most important water sources in the capital city earmarked for protection. Because of its 69% forest cover, the district is known as the natural “oxygen bar” of Beijing . In addition, it boasts a rich combination of plant, animal and tourism resources. Therefore, Huairou is of great importance to Beijing in ensuring the environmental quality and the ecosystem of the capital city.

In 1995 during the United Nation's 4th World's Women Conference in Beijing, the Civil Society community was forced to meet in the Huairou district, an hour from the official proceedings, leading to a great deal of discontent, as many of the non-governmental actors present felt marginalized. In a tent at the Civil Society Village established especially for poor, grassroots women at the conference (organized by GROOTS International), the Huairou Commission, a registered non-governmental organization with a global secretariat in Brooklyn, NY, was established to ensure that grassroots women would have a voice at subsequent UN conferences and in other development processes.

In 2005 a website documenting the 1995 Huairou NGO Forum, a temporary town of 30,000 women, was launched. (http://www.womenstown.org) The site aims to be a resourcs for teaching and learning about gender and the built environment and is coordinated and edited by an international collective of women. "Looking at the built form of that town, and the activities within it, one sees many of the issues women around the globe encounter in their everyday lives."