BEIJING: As World Environment Day was celebrated on Monday, more than 20 diplomats from 19 nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) paid a visit to Southwest China’s Guizhou Province to have a closer taste of China’s ecological progress and achievements.
While standing on the observation platform of the Wujiang River, the mother river of Guizhou and the largest tributary on the south bank of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River that carries more than half of Guizhou’s population and economic output, visitors just cannot help being “awed” by its green and natural beauty.
But one can hardly image that Huawu village in the city of Bijie, also known as the “cliffside village,” located at the confluence of the north and south sources of the Wujiang River, used to suffer from a fragmented environment, severe soil erosion, poor environmental hygiene and low incomes.
Many villagers in Huawu raised fish in net cages on the river surface, which was also a major cause of water pollution in the Wujiang River. Thanks to local ecological efforts, the village – home to 1,133 people from the three ethnic groups of the Miao, Yi and Han – has embarked on the green development path and stages these current splendid scenes.
“When I just find this type of place, mountainous with a lot of rivers running through it, you will say ‘how can I live there?’” Fiji’s Ambassador to China Manasa R. Tagicakibau said.
“You look at the development that Guizhou authorities did together with the local people, ethnic minorities and the population at large, in terms of development to make this mountainous area a very safe and harmonious place and a happy place to live in. I’m impressed,” he said.
Huawu village, based on its resource endowment and unique ethnic customs, has promoted the integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism. In 2022, the per capita disposable income of the local villagers exceeded 25,000 yuan ($3,512), more than double that of 2020, media reports said.
Tagicakibau told the Global Times that on ecological civilization, the Guizhou local authorities and the Chinese government under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, have gone “so far ahead in advance.”
“Green is the defining feature of China in the new era, and green development features the Chinese path to modernization,” read a white paper on green development issued by China’s State Council, the cabinet. –The Daily Mail-Global news exchange item
