Xi visits historic Liuchi Alley on inspection in east China's Anhui

China

Xi visits historic Liuchi Alley on inspection in east China's Anhui

2024-10-18 15:12 Last Updated At：18:27

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday visited the Liuchi Alley, a historical cultural site in Tongcheng City, east China's Anhui Province, on his current inspection tour in the province.

During the visit, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, learned about the local efforts to carry forward fine traditional Chinese culture and promote cultural-ethical progress.

Liuchi Alley, or "Six (Chinese) Foot Alley" in English, is an about 2-meter-wide and 100-meter-long alley built during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

One day, Zhang Ying, a minister in Kangxi's court, received a letter from his family in Tongcheng, informing him of the dispute over their property boundary with his neighbor Wu and the Wu family.

In his response, Zhang requested that his families yield three Chinese feet (1 Chinese foot equals approximately 0.33 meter) of land, which they agreed to do. In turn, the Wu family also yielded three feet, giving rise to the name Six-Foot Alley. This historic event vividly explains the essence of tolerance and non-contention widely esteemed in Chinese culture.

Authorities in Tongcheng City have been incorporating the traditional culture of Liuchi Alley, which emphasizes the value of harmony, into their governance. They are also developing the "Fengqiao Experience", which foreign media have recognized as an "effective social governance model deeply rooted in Chinese culture".

The "Fengqiao Experience" refers to the experience created by the government officials and members of the public in Fengqiao Town of Anhui's neighboring Zhejiang Province in the early 1960s, which features "mobilizing and relying on the broad masses of the people, insisting on not handing over the contradictions to higher authorities, solving them locally, and achieving fewer arrests and better public security".

Brief look at Anhui Province as Xi goes on inspection tour

2024-10-18 17:35 Last Updated At：18:17

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspected the cities of Anqing and Hefei in east China's Anhui Province on Thursday afternoon.

Xi visited the Liuchi Alley in Tongcheng City under Anqing and the Hefei Binhu Science City.

During the visits, he learnt about the local efforts to carry forward fine traditional Chinese culture, promote cultural-ethical progress, advance institutional innovation of science and technology, and accelerate the application of scientific and technological advances.

Being part of the Yangtze River Delta, Anhui Province boasts beautiful landscapes and a rich cultural heritage.

It covers an area of 140,100 square kilometers and has a population of 61.21 million.

In the first half of 2024, its GDP reached 2.3967 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 5.3 percent.

To comprehensively deepen reforms and promote high-quality development in manufacturing, Anhui is focused on building a "4433" trillion-yuan industrial system. The goal is to cultivate four trillion-yuan industries, four industries exceeding 500 billion yuan, three exceeding 300 billion yuan, and three exceeding 100 billion yuan by 2027.

Anhui Province has further enhanced its capacity for technological innovation by integrating reforms in education, technology, and talent systems. The strategical emerging industries driven by innovation are continuously growing, with technological advancements turning into new momentum for high-quality development.

As a major grain-producing area, Anhui's grain output has reached 40 billion kilograms for seven consecutive years.

Anhui is systematically advancing ecological protection and restoration while accelerating the green transformation of its development model. Over the past 10 years, energy consumption per unit of GDP in the province has decreased by 30 percent.

With a long and rich history and profound cultural heritage, Anhui is actively promoting cultural prosperity and development. The aim is to stimulate cultural innovation and creativity and accelerate the establishment of a thriving and strong cultural province.