Northeast China's Liaoning Province pledges to make more efforts for the comprehensive revitalization to recapture its vigor, said the governor of the province Li Lecheng at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Liaoning is located in the country's former heavy industry heartland.
Last year, according to Li, the province's GDP grew by 5.3 percent, surpassing the national growth rate for the first time in a decade.
In the first quarter of 2024, Liaoning's growth rate increased to 5.4 percent, demonstrating even stronger resilience, vitality and creativity in high-quality development.
The governor said efforts will be made in four aspects to achieve comprehensive revitalization in province, including developing new quality productive forces, making breakthroughs in deepening reform and opening up, consolidating advantages in promoting green development, and improving the well-being of the people.
"First, we will strive to excel on the development of new quality productive forces. We will rely on the advantages of scientific and educational resources to accelerate the creation of regional science and technology innovation centers with national influence. We will focus on the four trillion-yuan-level industrial bases of advanced equipment manufacturing, petrochemical and fine chemicals, new metallurgical materials, and high-quality characteristic consumer goods, striving to transform the 'largest variable' of scientific and technological innovation into the 'largest increment' to promote high-quality development," Li said.
"Second, we will strive for new breakthroughs in deepening reform and opening up. We'll continue to improve the business environment and comprehensively deepen reforms so as to promote high-quality development. Third, we will build our strengths in pursuing green development. The green, low-carbon and intelligent transformation of traditional industries is in full swing now. This year, the installed capacity of non-fossil energy will reach 50 percent [in the province]. Fourth, we will take active steps to improve people's well-being," he said.
Liaoning strives to achieve comprehensive revitalization: governor
From the streets of London, UK, to the heart of Caoxian County in Shandong Province, eastern China, the traditional Chinese garment known as Hanfu has gained immense popularity, with Caoxian County emerging as the capital of China's thriving Hanfu industry.
In recent years, a growing number of young Chinese individuals, both in China and globally, have been reconnecting with their cultural heritage, with many adopting the traditional Chinese attire known as Hanfu, a trend that has gained significant momentum over the past decade.
A Hanfu studio in London offers people the opportunity to try on Hanfu from different eras and have authentic hair and makeup done for photo shoots. Hanfu fans demonstrated a range of greeting gestures, each originating from a distinct Chinese dynasty.
"I think we shouldn't forget what we are. We need to be proud of our own culture," said Zhang Lijun, a Hanfu enthusiast and makeup artist.
The Hanfu revival has generated great interest from Chinese young people online, both inside and outside the country.
Caoxian County, over 600 kilometers from Beijing, makes up 50 percent of all Hanfu garments sold nationwide. And one of the main hubs is Daiji town, it's also known as a Taobao town, because of the volume of online orders shipped from there.
There are over 14,000 online stores selling Hanfu there as well as 2,000 businesses at every link in the supply chain. A total of 12 billion yuan worth of Hanfu was sold in this region in the last year alone, and the numbers are growing.
"It led to a 'Caoxian Model' where one store inspired a household, a household inspired a street, a street inspired a village, a village inspired a township, and a township inspired the entire county. It grew from a small spark to a prairie fire. The earliest is e-commerce, later we had a single division of labor, and then grew to cluster development. Through e-commerce, we formed four e-commerce industrial clusters," said Liu Xia, deputy director of Caoxian's e-commerce service center.
Yao Chixing runs a large e-commerce business called Luo Ruyan, and is passionate about promoting traditional Chinese culture. Her e-commerce showroom includes dozens of live-streaming rooms, where people can purchase thousands of designs 24 hours a day.
The most popular item for sale is the horse-face skirt, which was first seen in the Song Dynasty.
"It is made in the workshop behind us. Our designers first draw the patterns on the computer, and then the fabric is woven with these patterns. After the fabric is woven, it is then processed and pleated. The skirt can be machine-washed. The finished product looks like a pleated skirt," said Yao.
Yao said that incorporating these beautiful clothes into daily fashion is one of the aims of promoting the horse-face skirt.
China's thriving Hanfu industry spreads traditional culture globally
