Clear weather and apricot blossoms bring increasing visitors to the Crescent Lake scenic spot (Yueya Spring) in Dunhuang, Northwestern China's Gansu province. [Photo: chinadaily.com.cn]

Gansu's GDP increased by 4.2 percent year-on-year, reaching over 523 billion yuan ($77.6 billion) in the first half of this year, according to the Gansu Provincial Bureau of Statistics.

Trade in the first half of the year maintained fast growth. The total value of imports and exports in Gansu reached 32.58 billion yuan, a 24.6 percent increase year-on-year. The total value of exports was 6.16 billion yuan, an increase of 49.4 percent, and the total value of imports was 26.42 billion yuan, an increase of 20 percent.

In the first half, fixed asset investment in Gansu increased by 10.9 percent year-on-year. Investment in various projects, manufacturing and real estate development grew by 12.8 percent, 36.7 percent and 6.3 percent respectively.

In the first half of this year, the added value of the top 10 ecological industries in Gansu was 129.34 billion yuan, accounting or 24.7 percent of the total GDP growth in the province.