Haigeng Blue Island, Gengxiu Bay, More Beautiful Ecological Environment | New Area | Haigeng Blue Island, Gengxiu Bay, More Beautiful Ecological Environment

Located on the shore of the Yellow Sea and by the Jiaozhou Bay, this is the West Coast New Area in Qingdao, Shandong Province, with a 309 kilometer coastline stretching and intersecting 2129 square kilometers of land and 5000 square kilometers of sea.

Nowadays, the new district has bluer seas, more beautiful islands, and more beautiful bays, shining like pearls, dazzling and charming.

Conquering and renovating, showcasing a new look

In the evening, the sea breeze of the Golden Beach brushed against my ears, and the air was filled with the coolness of the sea.

"The sand here is as fine as powder and has a golden color, so it is named 'Jinshatan Beach'. However, there was a period of time when there were serious phenomena such as unauthorized construction and offshore aquaculture around the coast of Jinshatan Beach." Gu Yawen, a resident of Gujiadao Village in Xuejiadao Street, who has lived by the sea since childhood, said.

In 2016, the new area implemented the Blue Bay rectification action around six major tasks: demolishing illegal buildings, clearing shorelines, adjusting projects, repairing slow roads, planting greenery, and preserving culture.

To reduce the impact of rectification and renovation on the livelihoods of the people, the new area has taken multiple measures: providing sufficient compensation to coastal operators such as farmers, and guiding and supporting them to achieve industrial transformation; Reserve a sea port to provide fishermen with a more convenient and safe environment for going out to sea; Supporting the development of service industries such as catering and tourism, and expanding channels for local residents to increase their income. Among them, Xue Guangxiao is one of the many beneficiaries.

Leaving Jinshatan and driving southwest for less than 10 minutes, it is the Nandao Town community that houses the villagers near the original Jinshatan.

As the last sunset was obscured by clouds, colorful neon lights lit up, and more diners gathered, Xue Guangxiao and his wife's seafood restaurant ushered in the busiest time of the day. "The daily turnover during holidays can reach 15000 yuan. It is currently the peak season for tourism, and the foot traffic is four or five times higher than usual." Xue Guangxiao was busy greeting guests while introducing himself.

Xue Guangxiao and his wife originally engaged in aquaculture by the seaside. In the Blue Bay remediation campaign, they demolished their own aquaculture pond and opened a specialty seafood restaurant of over 300 square meters. "After years of farming, I suddenly had to quit. At first, I was a bit worried. But now I realize that the environment around me has improved, more and more tourists are attracted, and business is getting stronger."

Small scattered breeders have been cleared, and the coastline has changed from dirty and disorderly breeding ponds in the past to a pedestrian zone for citizens to live near the sea. As of 2020, the new area has completed a total of 130 kilometers of coastline cleaning, demolished more than 6 million square meters of breeding ponds, and built a 78 kilometer slow traffic system and visual corridor on Lanwan Road. Lingshan Bay, known for its clear water, clean beaches, beautiful bays, and beautiful islands, was named one of the first beautiful bays in China in 2021.

My gaze temporarily deviates from the long coastline and turns to the undulating ocean, which is the deep and boundless "blue granary". Years ago, due to overfishing, the fishery resources here were facing depletion.

At a depth of 15.9 meters, a temperature of 23.5 degrees Celsius, and a salinity of 29.6 ‰... around 4 pm, as we walked into the control center of the national marine ranch in Luhaifeng, a set of real-time ecological data came into view. Subsequently, the underwater camera was connected to real-time footage - plankton swaying and fish swimming back and forth, creating a vibrant atmosphere.

In just over ten seconds, five fish have already swam past the camera.

"If it were in the past, it would be unimaginable. In those years, the mesh of fishermen's trawls became smaller and they caught less and less." Wang Xiangang, the person in charge of Luhaifeng Marine Ranch, said, "In 2009, we started deploying artificial reefs, planting algae farms, etc. to protect and proliferate fishery resources, and restore the aquatic ecological environment. In recent years, we have gradually seen results."

According to the investigation and evaluation, in the artificial reef area of the Luhaifeng Marine Ranch, the amount of aquatic biological resources has increased by 5.3 times compared to before the reef was cast, and the basic productivity has increased by 64%. The entire new area has built 23 marine ranches with a total area of 7600 hectares, and deployed over 1.1 million cubic meters of artificial fish reefs; Among them, there are 16 national marine ranch demonstration areas.

There are ways to regulate normally

The West Coast New Area has a land area of over 2000 square kilometers and a long coastline. The local government has made great efforts to improve the ecological environment. As the most concentrated area of industrial enterprises in the city, how to strengthen ecological environment supervision and maintain existing governance achievements? How can regulatory forces cover some ecological protection areas that are relatively remote?

Arriving at the Ecological Environment Sub bureau of the West Coast New Area, in front of the large screen of the Ecological Environment Law Enforcement Intelligent Supervision Command Center, the staff retrieved real-time monitoring footage of the protected area, and captured and presented data from various systems such as water, atmosphere, and solid waste in real-time, making the ecological environment situation of the entire area clear at a glance. At the same time, the monitoring alarm summary on one side of the screen is still being updated in real-time, automatically reporting abnormal indicators such as smoke, sulfur dioxide, and non methane total hydrocarbons at different locations, reminding staff to verify the operation as soon as possible.

"On the basis of online monitoring of enterprise pollutant emissions and video monitoring of key pollution discharge points, we have included monitoring data of enterprise production and pollution control facilities' land use, and from once a year in the past, it has become real-time online and remote monitoring, making supervision more seamless." Zhao Peng, a member of the Party Group and leader of the Law Enforcement Brigade of the Ecological Environment Sub bureau of the West Coast New Area, introduced that by building a smart ocean management platform, a comprehensive control network along the bay has been formed, improving law enforcement efficiency, saving manpower and material resources, and reducing regulatory blind spots.

How to implement governance responsibilities one by one along the 309 kilometer coastline with the assistance of big data supervision?

On Monday afternoon, Xu Qiang, the town level bay chief of Yinzhu Street, visited both sides of the Dalu River in Lingshan Bay for inspection. He currently patrols the bay once a week, mainly responsible for garbage cleaning, post rain water quality monitoring, and controlling the discharge of pollutants into the sea and bay.

"Once, while patrolling the bay, I found the river water near the mouth of Fenghe River to be turbid. I quickly took photos and uploaded them to the intelligent bay patrol system app." Xu Qiang said that after tracing the source along the river with drainage company staff, he found that there were damaged sewage pipes, which caused sewage to overflow and discharge to the mouth of the sea. He immediately organized repair personnel with the river chief to take temporary measures to pump and discharge the overflow location. The next day, the staff entered the site for maintenance and all improvements were completed within 3 days.

"Every meter of coastline has a specific person in charge," said Wang Jianhui, a member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Ecological Environment Branch of the West Coast New Area. The new area implements a bay chief system, establishes a two-level bay chief system at the district and town/street levels, links with the river chief system, further strengthens frontline governance and supervision, and has also established a volunteer service team for marine environmental protection in the new era of civilization practice spontaneously composed of fishermen.

Land and sea coordination, river and sea co governance. According to the introduction, there are a total of 46 rivers of all sizes in the new area, including 20 rivers that flow into the sea. In the bay, the bay chief is responsible for pollution prevention and ecological restoration; On land, the river chief coordinates urban management, water conservancy and other departments to ensure that water quality meets discharge standards.

Incentive guidance and mechanism guarantee. In July 2020, the new district established a regional control surface water ecological compensation and assessment mechanism. 45 surface water assessment sections were set up in 23 towns and streets, and monitoring and assessment were conducted monthly. An ecological compensation of 5000 yuan was set up for each section every month to reward excellence. At present, more than 3 million yuan of ecological compensation has been distributed.

Exploring long-term mechanisms

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the sky was clear for thousands of miles, and the wind and waves were calm.

Take a fast boat from Jimiya Wharf out of Tangdao Bay, and head west into Lingshan Bay for about 9 nautical miles. You can see Lingshan Island lying on the blue waves.

"The island has diverse landforms and a vegetation coverage rate of 80%. Its main industries are marine aquaculture, aquaculture, and tourism. Don't underestimate this island, it is the first self carbon negative island announced by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment," said Li Feng, Secretary and Director of the Party Working Committee of the Lingshan Island Provincial Nature Reserve Management Committee.

The so-called negative carbon means removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or sequestering more carbon dioxide than emitted. How can this small island achieve carbon neutrality?

Embark on the island with doubts, walk south along the east bank for about two kilometers, turn right down the path, and then turn a few small alleys to reach Teng Yanfang, a villager from Lijia Village. Entering a small courtyard of about 40 square meters, it is spacious, bright, and tidy.

"I love cleanliness. In the past, burning coal for heating in winter was both unhygienic and inconvenient. After coal was shipped to the island, it didn't sell cheap either." Sitting at a small table in the yard, Teng Yanfang opened her mouth and said, "In 2020, the island implemented the 'coal to electricity rural clean heating renovation project', and I immediately registered." She then took the reporter to the living room and pointed to the white heater next to the sofa, saying, "This heater, after being subsidized by the government, only costs more than 400 yuan at her own expense, and there is also electricity subsidy during peak electricity periods, which is very cost-effective."

"There are over 1000 permanent residents on the island, and now two-thirds of the residents have achieved clean heating through the 'coal to electricity' conversion. Li Feng said that the 'gas to electricity' project will also start in September this year and is planned to be completed before the end of the year, when electromagnetic stoves will be installed for residents.".

In recent years, in addition to promoting the renovation of clean energy heating for households, Lingshan Island has also carried out projects such as carbon emission reduction incentive mechanism pilot, zero entry of fuel vehicles into the island, and full coverage of solar street lighting, which have reduced carbon sources, increased carbon sinks, and achieved independent carbon reduction for this offshore green island.

From an island perspective, the new area is constantly exploring carbon reduction: it has been approved to build the first natural carbon sink trading center in China and has landed the first natural carbon sink research institute in China; The construction of Sino German ecological parks has become a "low-carbon model" for national parks, providing solutions for achieving the "dual carbon" goals

At the same time, the local government is market-oriented, exploring diverse forms of financial innovation tools, promoting marine conservation and governance, and supporting low-carbon economic development.

In September last year, Qingdao West Coast Cultural Tourism Group Co., Ltd., the operation and management party of Tangdao Bay Wetland, obtained a low interest carbon loan of 20 million yuan from the Qingdao Development Zone Branch of Industrial Bank, specifically for the dredging of the wetland park shoreline.

The pledge of this loan is not a fixed asset, but a carbon resource brought by the favorable climate of Tangdao Bay Wetland.

According to professional evaluations, the Tangdao Bay Wetland, covering an area of 1802 hectares, has a carbon sequestration capacity of nearly 200000 tons in soil, vegetation, and water resources, and can reduce carbon emissions by 720000 tons in total. After being verified by relevant national departments, these emission reductions can be traded in the carbon trading market. The bank calculates the loan amount based on the market price on the day of the transaction and uses the forward yield right of wetland carbon reduction as collateral, providing financial "living water" for wetland maintenance.

In recent years, the new district has actively established a climate investment and financing standard system, built a project library, and developed diversified tools. As of the end of June this year, the balance of green credit in the new area was 37.86 billion yuan, an increase of 35.46% compared to the beginning of the year; The balance of climate investment and financing loans was 9.268 billion yuan, an increase of 1.72% compared to the beginning of the year. In the list of climate investment and financing pilot projects jointly released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the National Development and Reform Commission, and other nine departments, the West Coast New Area is among them, becoming the only climate investment and financing pilot area in Shandong Province.

The winding and winding coastline of the new car park, along the slow roads near the sea, allows for a relaxed and enjoyable experience for those who run or ride. In a place where the sea and sky are one color, sails are dotted and the blue is magnificent. In the distance between islands, there is a picturesque green screen, tranquil and beautiful, harmonious and moving.

"We will continue to focus on a green and sustainable marine ecological environment, and build the 309 kilometer coastline of the entire region into a beautiful bay with 'clean water and beaches, abundant fish and gulls, and harmonious human sea'. We will support high-quality development with a high-quality ecological environment and write a modern 'new area chapter' of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature." said Sun Yonghong, member of the Qingdao Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee, Secretary of the Qingdao West Coast New Area Working Committee, and Secretary of the Huangdao District Party Committee.