Jiangsu is moving along the Yangtze River with a green coastline | Jiangsu | Trend
With a land area of 1.1% of the country, carrying 6% of the population, and producing over 10% of the total economic output, Jiangsu shoulders the major responsibility of bravely taking on the big beam. At the same time, Jiangsu has a unique location with large rivers, lakes, and oceans, with a water area accounting for 16.9%, ranking first in the country. The wetland area is 2.828 million hectares, accounting for about a quarter of the province's land area.
In recent years, Jiangsu Province has been moving towards the United States, adhering to the principles of reducing pollution and carbon emissions without relaxation, unwavering source control, strict supervision without softness, and non-stop service development. We have worked together to promote high-quality economic development, high-level ecological environment protection, and high-quality living for the people. Traveling towards beauty, Jiangsu has created a new picture along the Yangtze River.
Resolve the "growing pains"
On a drizzly summer day, the reporter arrived at Huangtiangang Park in Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province. Huangtian Port Park is located on the original site of Huangtian Port Ferry Terminal. The original pier of the ferry extends into the park, and the park roads outline the texture of the Yangtze River in different colors, reminding people to walk by the Yangtze River now.
Jiangyin, since ancient times, has been a fortress of the Yangtze River. The Beijing Hangzhou Canal intersects with the Yangtze River here, forming a "T" shape with a coastline of 8 kilometers and 10 kilometers along the river. Parks with the word "port" such as Huangtian Port, Shanyu Port, and Jiucai Port are like blooming flowers, decorating Jiangyin with a graceful and colorful appearance. The 30 kilometer coastline in the main urban area of Jiangyin used to be a production coastline for every inch of land and every inch of gold. Zhu Yijun, Deputy Leader of the Jiangyin Cultural and Commercial Tourism Preparation Group, said that in recent years, Jiangyin has promoted the "three advances and three retreats": high-end advances and low-end retreats, governance advances and pollution retreats, ecological advances and production retreats. Nowadays, all the riverbanks have become ecological and hydrophilic shorelines.
Jiangyin is a typical representative of the development of economically strong counties in Jiangsu. While the economy is developing rapidly, although the quality of the ecological environment continues to improve steadily, there are also growing pains: a heavy industrial structure, high consumption of resources and energy, and high emissions of pollutants.
Jiangyin adheres to the principles of "harmonious waterfront, river river linkage, river city interaction, and integration of forests and wetlands", and has embarked on a new path of promoting high-quality economic development, high standard environmental protection, and high-quality urban-rural construction. This path has left behind a series of heavy data. From 2017 to 2022, the city has invested over 15 billion yuan in the construction of ecological and environmental infrastructure, shut down 4312 "scattered pollution" enterprises, proactively compressed the planned production coastline of the port from 23.4 kilometers to 16.85 kilometers, completed the treatment of 20 abandoned mines, implemented afforestation and greening of 3498 acres, and increased the natural wetland protection rate to 27.8%. At the same time, the city's GDP has exceeded the 400 billion yuan mark for four consecutive years, reaching 470 billion yuan, with a net increase of 112 high-tech enterprises.
The changes in Jiangyin are to some extent a microcosm of Jiangsu's development. The development blueprint of Jiangsu is summarized as "strong, rich, beautiful, and high", with strong economy, rich people, beautiful environment, and high level of social civilization. To achieve such a grand blueprint, Jiangsu has a development foundation but also faces real pressure.
Yin Rongyao, Deputy Director of the Department of Ecology and Environment of Jiangsu Province, listed a set of data to introduce the special challenges faced by Jiangsu's "moving towards beauty". Jiangsu is located at the end of the Yangtze River, Huai River, and Yishu Si River system, with inbound passenger water accounting for 87% of the total water volume. The environmental quality is greatly affected by external factors. Jiangsu's green development faces special challenges. The per capita land area is the smallest in the country, and the GDP per unit land area is 10 times that of the country. The production of thermal power generation, steel, and cement all rank among the top three in the country. The production of pesticides, raw materials, and dyes accounts for more than 40% of the total production in the country. The emission intensity of major pollutants per unit land area is about 5 times that of the country. Yin Rongyao sighed and said, "Jiangsu remains one of the provinces with the highest ecological and environmental pressure and the heaviest tasks in China."
Jiao Jianlei, Deputy Director of the Research Office of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, said that the ecological environment quality indicators in the province have continuously reached the best level since monitoring records, achieving a historic transformation from severe overdraft to significant improvement. A good ecological environment has become the most happy public product for the people, and the color of "environmental beauty" is even more brilliant.
Let the Yangtze River maintain its vitality forever
The Yangtze River enters Jiangsu from Pukou District in Nanjing, winding eastward and flowing into Shanghai in Nantong. Jiangsu firmly implements the requirement of "jointly promoting large-scale protection and avoiding large-scale development", placing large-scale protection in an overwhelming position, and promoting the revitalization of the Yangtze River. In recent years, a total of 3876 chemical enterprises have been shut down in Jiangsu, and 81 kilometers of the Yangtze River production coastline have been vacated. The proportion of ecological coastline has increased to 64.1%, and the water quality of the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River has remained at Class II for five consecutive years.
Traveling along the river from Nanjing, you can see the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan on both sides. In the southern part of Nantong City, Huangshan, Ma'anshan, Langshan, Jianshan, and Junshan stand by the Yangtze River and are known as the Five Mountains. The 14 kilometer coastline here is an important ecological hinterland and water source for urban development in the Nantong section of the Yangtze River. But in the past, this place was filled with ports, docks, factories, and old neighborhoods intertwined, once described as "not seeing the river by the riverbank, not being close to the water".
Shao Wenjian, member of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Management Office of Nantong Langshan Tourist Resort, said that since 2016, Nantong has fully implemented ecological restoration and protection projects, carried out more than 20 special rectification actions in the five mountains and riverside areas, shut down 203 "scattered pollution" enterprises, vacated and repaired 12 kilometers of coastline, added about 600 hectares of park green space, and achieved a forest coverage rate of over 80%.
Nowadays, the green roads in the Wushan area are connected, with birds singing and flowers fragrant. The once "dirty, messy and poor" riverbank has become a "urban living room", achieving a magnificent transformation from "Linjiang" to "Binjiang", from "production rust belt" to "ecological beauty belt".
Wushan is a node in Nantong's construction of an ecological green corridor along the river. Nantong Riverside is facing the sea and is carefully constructing the "Nantong Chain" Riverside Greenway and the "Colorful Hundred Mile" Coastal Greenway. When it comes to governance along the Yangtze River, the people of Nantong use colorful words.
In order to weave a "colorful" ecological belt, Nantong has issued the "Implementation Opinions on the Construction of Coastal Ecological Landscape Belt along the Yangtze River". The overall planning and design of the approximately 730 square kilometers of coastal area along the Yangtze River have been optimized, and the spatial layout of scenery, industry, towns, and villages has been optimized. Efforts have been made to coordinate and promote the construction of the Great River and Sea Scenic Belt, the River and Sea Style Urban Belt, the Poetic Countryside Belt, the Yangtze River Science and Technology Innovation Belt, and the Coastal High level Industrial Belt.
In addition, Nantong has also issued the "Guidelines for the Design of Landscape Roads on River Embankments and Seawalls", creating a 430 kilometer ecological corridor that connects the river and sea for car viewing, cycling, and walking. Three types of road sections are set up according to local conditions: urban section, rural section, and industrial and mining enterprise section. Recreation facilities such as stations and observation platforms are arranged as needed, allowing the general public to get close to the water and enjoy it. Nantong has also built a "Viewing the River and the Sea" embankment top road, and currently, the total length of the embankment top road is 285 kilometers. At the same time, we will create demonstration sections with unique charm and build ten ecological characteristic demonstration sections, including the Qidong Jianghai Cultural Landscape Avenue. Nantong has also promoted the construction of 10 key cultural and tourism projects, and has built a number of high-quality rural tourism points that reflect the characteristics of river, sea, fishing, and agricultural experience, achieving a win-win situation in ecological, social, and economic benefits.
There are many beautiful water towns in Jiangnan
Jiangsu is moving towards beauty, and it is also beautiful in every small corner of the countryside.
Yuandang Village is located in the northeast corner of Wujiang District, Suzhou City, adjacent to Shanghai. The village is named after the lake. This former "Bianjiao Village" has become the "center" of ecological construction.
Standing facing the lake, a pedestrian bridge passes through Yuandang Lake, connecting Wujiang in Jiangsu and Qingpu in Shanghai. On the slow bridge, the lake ripples and the gulls flip over, it's very pleasant. Yuandang Lake is the core lake in the "One River, Three Lakes" demonstration zone for ecological and green integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta. It is also the central node of the beautiful lake group project of the pilot county project for water system connectivity and rural water system comprehensive improvement in Wujiang District, Suzhou City. Yao Jun, Director of the Urban and Rural Development Bureau of the Fenhu High tech Zone in Wujiang, said that the "Qushui Shanwan" project created in this area will create a model for rural revitalization within the integrated demonstration zone of the growth triangle in the surrounding Zhongjiadang village area of Yuandang in Lili Town.
Walking around Jiangsu, one can see the beautiful scenery of clear water, green banks, and shallow bottoms with fish flying. Behind this lies stories of ecological construction.
In the ecological park of Jiangxiang Village, Zhitang Town, Changshu City, lotus flowers are blooming in full bloom, and there is an endless stream of visitors. Who would have thought that this was once a muddy land? After renovation and construction, it has now become a unique landscape. There is also a 1200 acre pollution-free grain and oil production base in Jiangxiang Village. 80 year old Secretary Chang Desheng said that in the first half of the year, the 1200 acres of arable land were fallow, and river mud, pig manure, and straw were added to the land for organic fertilizer. In the second half of the year, rice cultivation did not require the use of pesticides and fertilizers, and the quality of the rice produced was very high, selling for 10 yuan per kilogram.
In southern Jiangsu, Nantong has established a "big system" for ecological construction and improved the pollution prevention and control work system at the city, county, town, and village levels. As of the end of 2022, the rural domestic sewage treatment rate in the five cities of southern Jiangsu has increased to 78%.
"The mountains here are the greenest, the sky is the bluest, and the flowers and plants are the most vibrant... Walking around the ends of the earth and corners of the sea, it is said that this place is the most Jiangnan." Walking in Jiangsu, the green in my eyes, the flowers and plants on the roadside, and the distant rivers and lakes often remind reporters of the song "The most Jiangnan here". Jiangsu is using emotions as its ink and struggle as its pen to depict the magnificent blueprint of "strong, rich, beautiful, and high" one by one in the rivers, lakes, and countryside of cities and rural areas.
