Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday inspected Yucun Village in the county of Anji, East China's Zhejiang Province, stressing the great importance of green development amid the resumption of work and production.
It was not his first visit to the county of Anji, the name of which means peace and happiness. On August 15, 2005, it was in Yucun village, Xi, then Party chief of Zhejiang, put forward the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."
A combined photo shows Xi Jinping inspecting Yucun Village in the county of Anji of east China's Zhejiang Province on Monday and in 2005. (Photo: People's Daily, designed by Zhang Tianyi)
“From the county’s name, I think of the harmony between man and nature and economic development”, he said then.
During the past 15 years, Yucun Village has adhered to that concept and explored an eco-friendly path for development.
The village, once plagued by heavy industrial pollution, is now a national 4A scenic area renowned for its beauty and high livability.
A stone inscription of “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” at the entrance of the Yuncun Village. (Photos: CCTV News)
Pan Chunlin, the owner of the first agritainment resort in the village, once drove the tractor in the mining area of the county.
With the recovery of ecological environment following the mine closure, he decided to run an agritainment resort, which has driven the trend of developing green industries in the county.
Guesthouse, high-end tourism and cultural resort town have been combined in the growth of tourism and the ecological industry system has been preliminarily established in the county.
When President Xi walked into Pan’s yard on Monday, Pan’s family was making green glutinous rice balls, a traditional snack in Southeast China.
Pan Chunlin (extreme right) and his families.
Xi talked to villagers and learned about the changes brought by advancing green development.
Under Xi’s advocacy, Zhejiang's Green Rural Revival Program was launched in 2003, selecting 1,000 villages to balance the growth of economic development and ecological restoration and regards them as role model villages among 10,000 villages.
In 2018, Zhejiang's Green Rural Revival Program won the Champions of the Earth Award, the United Nations’ highest environmental honor.
Zhejiang Province was recognized "for the transformation of a once heavily polluted area of rivers and streams", the UN Environment Program said.
A view of Yucun Village.
At a tone-setting meeting on environmental protection in Beijing in 2018, Xi said ecology and environment are closely connected with people’s well-being.
He called for comprehensive efforts to promote green development, which is not only an inevitable requirement to develop a modern high-quality economy but also a fundamental solution for pollution.
(Compiled by Jiao Jingxian; from CCTV News)