A main river in Shijiazhuang, capital city of north China's Hebei Province, has taken on a new look thanks to years of ecological restoration efforts, serving as a captivating destination for leisure activities and increasing local residents' income through tourism promotion.
Stretching across 205 kilometers, the Hutuo River stands as the largest and most significant river in Shijiazhuang, traversing 10 counties and districts within the city.
Along the river, the vast green belts and diverse recreational facilities make up an inviting environment. The improved ecological environment has also attracted a variety of bird species, presenting photographers with more opportunities to capture captivating bird images.
"In the past, there weren't as many bird species as there are now. But, due to the restoration efforts over the past two years, the variety of bird species has increased. The bird population has also grown," said Chang Yanqi, a photographer, who has been capturing photographs of birds for over 10 years.
Going back ten years, the scenes along the Hutuo River were totally different. The river was plagued by waste dumping, sweage discharge, and uncontrolled sand mining, resulting in a deteriorated state of the river ecosystem and its surroundings.
In response to the public's desire for a better environment and the demand for economic development, local authorities launched a three-phase ecological restoration project along a 109-kilometer stretch of the river in 2017.
After four years, remarkable improvements have been achieved in the section of the Hutuo River, with the vegetation coverage along the river exceeding 63 percent, and the water surface expanding to more than 2,680 hectares.
"To address public demands and cater to the requirements for urban and economic development, improvement of the business environment, as well as invitation of investment, we made the decision to launch a pilot project focusing on the section in the downtown area. Following its successful completion, we proceeded to expand the project along the entire river," said Kang Xiaoliang, deputy director with the office of water resources bureau of Shijiazhuang.
Residents living along the river have also benefited from the improved ecological environment by developing agriculture, tourism, and care services.
"Relying on the Hutuo River, tourism development has flourished. The average per capita income can now reach 35,000 yuan (4,816 U.S. dollars） per year and that for the village collective is 30 million yuan (4.13 million U.S. dollars),” said Yin Jiping, a Communist Party secretary of Tayuanzhuang Village in the city.
Improved river environment boosts tourism, increases residents' income in north China city
Active policy measures to boost the economy, the fostering of new quality productive forces and the optimization of measures for the real estate sector will ensure China sustains a robust GDP growth this year, said Dora Liu, deputy CEO for Deloitte China, a global auditing and consulting firm, at the just-concluded Summer Davos forum.
The three-day Summer Davos forum, or the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s 15th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, concluded in Dalian City, northeast China's Liaoning Province, on Thursday.
In an interview with China Global Television Network on the sidelines of the forum, Liu noted that from January to May, the Chinese economy has shown a vigorous growth momentum in manufacturing, consumption and exports as the World Bank has raised the growth estimate for China's economy in 2024 from 4.5 percent to 4.8 percent.
"In the first five months we have seen very strong performance of three sectors. First and foremost, manufacturing, no doubt. Second is service consumption, and third is external demand - you can interpret as exports. From a production side, manufacturing, particularly advanced manufacturing, or high-tech-related manufacturing has achieved a very impressive result," said Liu.
Official data showed that in the first five months, China's industrial output increased 6 percent year-on-year. In May, the output of the high-tech manufacturing sector surged 9.4 percent, 4.4 percentage points faster than the pace of overall industrial output growth.
The data also showed that China's consumption growth picked up pace in May with retail sales expanding 8.6 percent year-on-year, while fixed-asset investment grew 5.6 percent year-on-year in the first five months.
"That indicates we (China) are on the right track of high-quality growth, particularly, the new [quality] productive forces as the top priority of our economic growth. The combination of our measures, the new [quality] productive forces, and the optimization of real estate measures. All in all, I'm very confident that we can achieve more than 5 percent GDP growth in this year," said Liu.
First introduced in 2023, new quality productive forces refer to advanced productivity freed from the traditional economic growth mode and productivity development paths. It features high-tech, high efficiency and high quality.
On May 28, Deloitte hosted the inaugural MNC Future Summit in Shanghai, gathering together over 200 global delegates, including senior executives from renowned multinational companies (MNCs) in China, top industry professionals, and Deloitte's client service lead partners.
The attendees to the summit all agreed that the Chinese economy is too big and too important to ignore, and that despite the complexities, the Chinese market still hold abundant opportunities for global investors, according to Liu.
"The reason behind why we were all so confident of China's economy is exactly as what Premier Li Qiang mentioned and pointed out [at the opening plenary of the Summer Davos forum]. First and foremost, the mega size of our digital economy, the huge amount of user cases and the innovation - pivotal is the power of the innovation hub. Second is the talent pool, and third is China has been keeping advocating the open-door policy and it put words into action," said Liu.
Deloitte deputy CEO confident in China's economic development
