BEIJING — Historic achievements have been made in wetlands conservation in China and its area of wetlands has increased to 56.35 million hectares, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Nov 5.

Xi made the remarks when delivering a speech via video at the opening ceremony of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in China's Wuhan and Switzerland's Geneva.

Xi noted that a protection system has been put in place, and a Wetlands Conservation Law has been enacted in China.

Wetlands have become an integral part of many Chinese cities like Wuhan, making the cities notably more livable, said Xi.