by Qian Shanming, Yang Guang, CGTN Radio
Beiji Village, also known as “North Pole Village,” sits at the northernmost tip of China. Nestled in the beautiful Daxing’anling area of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, Beiji Village is known for its long winters, with a record low temperature of -52.3°C. Once a remote and underdeveloped border village, Beiji Village has bloomed into a bustling tourist hotspot, all because of green development.
The lives of the locals and the village were transformed, especially by utilizing more green resources. As once-polluted waterways turned into clean rivers, forests placed under protection by logging bans and reforestation plans, local people had the chance to develop agritourism and rural e-commerce and started to reap the fruits on this green new path.
Tourists visit a snow compound in Beiji Village of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province on December 5th, 2018. [Photo: CFP]
One of the villagers, Shi Ruijuan, said her family had lived off logging for generations. Since the enforcement of the local commercial logging ban on natural forests in 2014, her family turned to other ways of making a living, including farming at first. With more policy support in place to develop an eco-centered economy, agritourism caught on, and tourists from across the country started coming to the village. Shi’s family converted their house into a family hostel and started selling their garden vegetables to visitors as well. Since then, life has been improving for Shi and her family.
The transformation of Beiji Village proved that green economy based on local conditions is the right path.
Since commercial logging of natural forests was banned in Heilongjiang Province in 2014, the green transformation in the Daxing’anling forest area has picked up pace. Over the past decade, both the forest area and forest coverage rate have increased. Local development has shifted from relying solely on logging to a green economy centred around forest ecotourism, forest food products, and medicinal herb processing. Blueberry processing plants, northern herb plantations, and other ventures have sprung up. Attractions like the “Polar Forest Ice and Snow Carnival”, the “Northernmost Post Office in China” and the “Northernmost Dumpling House” have drawn large numbers of tourists from across the country.
Tourists enjoy outdoor games in Beiji Village of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province on November 30th, 2019. [Photo: CFP]
Tourists come to Beiji Village for its cool and breezy summers, and also for its snowy winters. On the way to the village, birch and pine trees line up the roadside, green and lush. Wild animals like roe deer and local pheasants roam the woods, to the delight of excited tourists. In 2015, Beiji Village was officially rated as a top-level national tourist attraction. By 2022, more than 200 family hostels and restaurants were up and running in the village, and average annual income of villagers reached 31,000 yuan, or 4,300 US dollars. Such positive development has the added benefit of attracting young people back to their home village.
Through green transformation, Beiji villagers were able to tap into the invaluable assets of lucid waters and lush mountains and the unique endowment in ice and snow. “Green development underlies high-quality development.”On China’s path to ecological civilization, lucid waters and lush mountains are not only natural and ecological assets for Chinese people, but are also invaluable social and economic assets.
High-level Eco-environmental protection provides important support for high-quality development
Along the border area between central China’s Henan Province and Hubei Province spans the Danjiangkou Reservoir, the largest man-made freshwater lake in Asia, and also a vital source for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.
For over a decade, strict ecological protection measures have been implemented around the Danjiangkou Reservoir. Efforts to reduce emissions, control pollution, and protect water quality have intensified. Local residents and volunteers are actively engaged in water protection work, cleaning up waste, and promoting awareness for water conservation. With continued dedication from all fronts, Danjiangkou Reservoir has been able to maintain Grade-II, or “drinking water” quality.
The picture taken on September 23rd, 2024 shows an aerial view of Danjiangkou Reservoir in central China. [Photo: CFP]
Starting from the Danjiangkou Reservoir is the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, a multi-decade infrastructure mega-project in China that aims to channel 44.8 billion cubic meters of fresh water each year from southern China to quench the thirst of the more arid and industrialized north. On the receiving end of this three-canal system is around 15% of the nation’s total land area, making this water diversion project the largest project of its kind in the world.
Described as a “lifeline” for China, the water diversion project had diverted over 70 billion cubic meters of fresh water by March 2024, benefiting over 176 million people in seven provinces along the route, significantly boosting local economic and social development. With the diverted water, many people in northern China now enjoy clear and sweet “southern water”. In the past, one out of three glasses of water in Beijing came from Miyun Reservoir in the suburb, but now, over 70% of the city’s water supply comes from the south. In Handan City of north China’s Hebei Province, more than 4.6 million residents now enjoy water from the Yangtze River, cleaner and sweeter.
Over the past decade, China has invested huge efforts to address issues concerning this mega project, including water quality, environmental protection, project safety, and livelihoods of people who have been relocated from the reservoir area. For China, high-level protection provides important support for high-quality development.
Harmony between humanity and nature is an important theme of Chinese modernization, and rational utilization of water is just one example. As more people are joining in the efforts to build a beautiful China, they highly value the concept that “human needs to respect nature, follow its laws and protect it, and to find out a way to live with nature in harmony, while balancing and coordinating economic development and ecological protection.”
All beings flourish when they live in harmony and receive nourishment from nature
One day in April 2021, a group of wild elephants broke the peace of Yuanjiang County, which sits among the dense jungles and misty mountains of Yunnan Province in southwest China. The seventeen Asian elephants that appeared on a nearby mountain of the county presented a great surprise for the locals and quickly became a national sensation.
Earlier, these elephants left their comfortable home in Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve and embarked on a northbound journey of several thousand kilometers, making a round-trip that lasted for months across Yunnan Province.
As the elephants toured around, local authorities mobilized resources to ensure the safety of both the elephants and local residents. Factories along their path turned off their lights so as not to disturb these unusual passersby. People quietly made way for these gentle giants, leaving corn, bananas, and other food on the way to guide them on their journey. Following the footsteps of these elephants, a beautiful picture of harmony between human and nature unfolded.
The aerial photo taken on June 7th, 2021 shows a migrating herd of elephants napping near Xinyang Township in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. [Photo: CFP]
In October of the same year, the UN Biodiversity Conference was held in Yunnan. The migration of the wild elephants was mentioned once again,as one of the vivid examples of China’s endeavor and progress in building an ecological civilization.
The Asian elephant is designated as a Class I, or top-level protected species in China. Thanks to years of conservation efforts, the population of wild Asian elephants in China doubled from around 150 in the 1980s to around 300 today.
At the China-Laos border, wild Asian elephants have become less fearful of humans, as they move freely through the border checkpoints, as if on cross-border “shopping” trips. The fact that elephants can live, migrate, and thrive peacefully is a testament to China’s commitment to ecological construction and biodiversity conservation.
The China-Laos Railway, which opened in December of 2021, passes through several Asian elephant habitats. During the planning phase of the project, China led the efforts to conduct extensive research on the distribution and migration routes of the elephants, as well as on their living habits. As a result, tunnels and bridges were used instead of traditional roadbeds wherever possible to allow passage for the elephants. In areas where the elephants often showed up, special barriers totaling dozens of kilometers were constructed for their protection.
China also worked with Laos to establish a cross-border joint protection area roughly the size of south China’s coastal city Shenzhen. Within this green ecological corridor, rare wildlife like leopards, civet cats, and bears have been spotted, and conflicts between humans and elephants have decreased year by year.
“All beings flourish when they live in harmony and receive nourishment from nature.” China says it will not stop its footsteps in biodiversity conservation and will further deepen international exchanges and cooperation on that front, keep its commitment to the Action Plan for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and launch a large number of key projects on biodiversity protection and restoration.
China believes in the vision that building an ecological civilization is vital to the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. Whether it is “rivers of clean water running northward” “lucid waters and lush mountains”, or elephants strolling leisurely across Yunnan, the journey of building a beautiful China will continue.