Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Sunday called for greater efforts to fuel the country's transformation of its economic growth pattern.

Xi made the call during an inspection to Tangshan, a city ravaged by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 240,000 people in 1976, just days ahead of its 34th anniversary.

The Vice President placed flowers before a memorial wall for the earthquake, and expressed his condolences for the quake victims.

When visiting a local dock and a train factory, Xi said the drive to transform China's economic growth pattern should rely on newly developed and high technologies, and called for greater efforts to develop a circular economy in order to attain "energy-saving, environment-friendly and innovation-driven development."

He also urged members of the Communist Party of China to solve more practical problems for the public, and said the current official selection and appointment system should be further improved.