The incident of soil pollution at Changzhou industrial 'toxic land' (often called "brownfields" in Western literature) where 493 students had developed illness is merely a tip of the iceberg.

In acknowledging the soil pollution, what is really crucial for China is to find a solution and China can learn lessons from the United States, Japan and Germany on how to strengthen soil contamination prevention and remediation

Compared to developed countries, the remediation efforts in China has just begun, there are many shortcomings in various aspects such as awareness of the issue, laws and regulations, financial support, information disclosure and public participations, not to mention the obstacles caused by the local governments and enterprises during to the process.

To make profound changes, China has to face a myriad of challenges.