The green ecological zone of Everbright Ecological Industrial Park in Xiong"an. Beneath it lies a waste treatment plant, adopting the "park on top, factory below" model. Photo: Courtesy of Everbright Ecological Industrial Park

　　Two enormous steel claws swung slowly through the air, plunged into a mountain of garbage and rose again carrying huge loads of waste. From behind a glass wall, the scene looked almost like a giant claw machine - except that the "prizes" weighed tons and would soon be fed into an incinerator.

　　What was more surprising was what people could not smell.

　　There was no strong, unpleasant odor of garbage, no deafening mechanical roar and none of the grim industrial atmosphere one might associate with a waste treatment plant.

　　Behind a control console, a technician moved two joysticks almost effortlessly, guiding the giant grab cranes back and forth across the waste bunker. Through the glass, the whole operation looked more like a scene from a science-fiction film.

　　What surprised visitors even more was that there was a park right above the plant. People were walking along tree-lined paths, passing a lake and enjoying the green space, while Xiong"an"s largest waste treatment facility was operating more than 20 meters beneath their feet.

　　This is the Hebei Xiong"an Everbright Ecological Industrial Park, where Xiong"an"s waste is being turned into electricity, heat and construction materials. The Global Times learned from the park"s operator, the roughly 33-hectare complex adopts what its operators call a "park above, factory below" model. Its solid-waste facilities descend as deep as 27.5 meters underground, while more than 70 percent of the surface is landscaped with greenery.