In October 30th, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development named 35 cities as the national garden cities, including Zixing City, so Zixing City is the first county-level national garden city in Hunan Province after issuing the latest version of "National garden city standards" in 2016.

It was understood that the city adhered to create a national garden city after successfully created the "Hunan garden city" in 2008. In the process of creation, the city strived to build the green system pattern, invested 675 million yuan to construct and manage the garden greening from 2014 to 2016, and strengthened the greening management and control. At the same time, the city started the four roads, one bridge and one port, the "sponge city" and other projects construction, and constantly improved the municipal facilities; carried out the urban environmental remediation, and environmental and urban biodiversity protection to improve the ecological environment; implemented the shanty towns and old urban reconstruction and other livelihood projects to optimize the human settlement environment.

At present, the urban forest coverage rate reached 74.59%, the urban green coverage rate reached 44.28%, the green rate reached 42.15%, the per capita green area reached 10.44 square meters, and the public satisfaction rate of urban landscaping reached 91.76%. Zixing City initially formed an urban ecological environment with "tree lined, city garden integration, green and urban coordination, and harmonious development between man and nature".