East China's Shandong Province has made significant strides in protecting its water resources while pursuing high-quality, green growth as part of its modernization drive.
Staying committed to accelerating the transition to green and low-carbon development, the province has recorded impressive achievements in water conservation, with its energy consumption per unit of GDP declining 15.8 percent over the past three years.
Shandong has also become the first province in China's eastern coastal region to boast over 100 gigawatts of installed new energy and renewable energy capacity.
Furthermore, the proportion of excellent water quality at the state-monitored sections in Shandong has reached an impressive 83.7 percent.
In the provincial capital of Jinan, the iconic Black Tiger Spring (Heihu Spring), the city's second-largest spring, continues to captivate visitors with its thunderous roar as the water crashes against the rocks.
Locals like 66-year-old Li Yupu have long revered this natural wonder, which has been safeguarded through years of dedicated efforts to protect the spring's water sources and crack down on unauthorized groundwater extraction.
"The water you get here is so clean that you don't need to wash the containers after drinking the water," said Li, underscoring the province's commitment to preserving the purity of its iconic springs.
The clean water from the springs flows into the Xiaoqing River, a vital waterway in Shandong that has witnessed a remarkable ecological transformation.
The Xiaoqing River, with a history of nearly 900 years, is the only waterway in Shandong Province that serves multiple functions including water-and-land transportation, river and sea connectivity, and agricultural irrigation.
Every month, Tian Yong, deputy director and senior engineer at the Jinan Ecological Environment Monitoring Center, leads his team to conduct ecological monitoring in the Xiaoqing River basin, finding that the water quality in the river has stabilized at the level of Class III, with the number of biological species having nearly tripled from 70 in 2016 to over 200 today.
Surface water quality in China is divided into five classes, with Class I being the highest quality.
Further south, the Grand Canal, the world's longest man-made waterway connecting north and south China, is also experiencing a positive transformation.
Yang Baolong, a 36-year-old boat owner who has lived on the canal for over 20 years and is now driving a liquefied natural gas (LNG) clean energy vessel to transport goods, has witnessed the dramatic changes firsthand.
"The water in the canal used to be very dirty, especially in the Jinan section. The houses along the banks were covered in a layer of dust. Now, the banks are beautifully green, almost like a park," said Yang.
The Shandong section of the canal serves both as a vital waterway and a part of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which transfers water from the Yangtze River to quench the thirst of dry areas in the north through eastern, middle and western routes.
To ensure that clear water from the canal flows northward, Weishan County has implemented a range of measures, including closing down polluting industries, restoring fishing areas to their natural state, and implementing joint regional pollution-prevention and -control measures.
Thanks to those vigorous restoration efforts, the Weishan Lake, the largest freshwater lake in northern China and a hub of the canal, has seen a resurgence of biodiversity, with rare bird species like the pheasant-tailed jacana, white-naped crane, and oriental white stork returning to the area.
The Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve, a vast wetland ecosystem at the mouth of the Yellow River, has also seen years of improvement of its wetland ecosystem, providing better shelter for its original bird inhabitants while attracting new species.
Researchers of the nature reserve recently discovered for the first time the presence of two black-faced spoonbill birdlings, an endangered species with only a few thousand individuals remaining worldwide, marking a significant ecological milestone as these birds had previously been recorded only in regions further north.
The endangered black-faced spoonbill, a large white wading bird with a distinctively spoon-shaped beak resembling a traditional Chinese instrument called pipa, is under the national first-class protection.
According to the newly released 2024 International Black-faced Spoonbill Census, the global population of the species is 6,988, with 6,200 residing in China.
"The young birds are very healthy, and we are continuously monitoring their conditions, watching them grow, fledge, and thrive in the wetlands. This year, we have also released 5,000 kilograms of fry to improve the survival rate of these precious chicks," said Zhao Yajie, deputy director of the Yellow River Delta Ecological Monitoring Center.
Once plagued by soil salinization, an important cause of desertification and known as the "cancer of the Earth" that led to wetland shrinkage, the delta has seen restoration efforts that have reconnected 241 kilometers of waterways and revitalized over 50,000 mu (about 3,333 hectares) of seagrass and salt-tolerant vegetation.
Each year, millions of migrant birds forage and migrate here at this restored habitat.
"It's hard to believe that this place, once plagued by a lot of wastewater and waste from aquaculture flowing into the rivers and directly into the sea, could become so beautiful," says Sun Jianguo, a resident of Rizhao City.
In recent years, Rizhao has also strengthened the ecological governance and protection of its marine environment, restoring around 24 kilometers of coastline, 1.28 million square meters of beaches, and over 1.1 million square meters of vegetation.
The city has also built a 28-kilometer Sunshine Coast Greenway, attracting visitors with a variety of cultural and tourism offerings.
Shandong Province makes strides in water resources protection
