Xi's domestic inspections in 2024 highlight grassroots governance, cultural heritage

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited more than 15 cities and a special administrative region in 2024, focusing on core issues including grassroots-level governance and cultural heritage.

Xi inspected Zaolinxi Community, a community in northwest China's Gansu Province, in September for its grid-based management system.

Grid-based management is key to Chinese grassroots-level governance. It divides a certain number of households into grids, with a person who can respond to people's daily needs designated to each grid, as part of efforts to ease any dissatisfaction that could escalate into social problems.

The community has more than 5,600 households, with more than 11,000 people living there. Wang Tong is one of the staff members who shared her story with President Xi in September.

"The visit of the general secretary has further strengthened my love for this job, and this love has really strengthened my belief," she said.

Improving people's livelihood through the empowerment of innovation and technology is another key element of President Xi’s inspections in 2024.

"People's livelihood is of utmost importance in Chinese modernization. All the work of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is intended to ensure a happier life for the people," Xi said during his inspection tour of Chongqing in April, where he visited a community in the city's Jiulongpo District to learn about local efforts in renovating old residential buildings and providing handy service for the public.

In May, President Xi visited east China's Shandong province. While he was in the city of Rizhao, Xi toured the Sunshine Coast Green Lane, which focuses on the restoration of the coastline’s ecosystem.

Locals said they were deeply impressed by how much Xi cares about the well-being of the people.

"During the tour, what touched me the most is that the General Secretary, at every moment, always thinks about the people, and considers the well-being of local residents and tourists," said Liu Wenjun, director of the Wanpingkou scenic spot in Rizhao.

"A happy life comes from hard work. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will definitely be realized," Xi said during the visit.

In October, President Xi visited the Six Feet Lane in Anhui province, where he highlighted the cultural importance of social harmony and peace as essential values in governance.

The Liuchi Xiang, or "Six Feet Lane" in English, is an about 2-meter-wide and 100-meter-long lane built during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

A historic story behind the alley vividly explains the essence of tolerance and non-contention widely esteemed in Chinese culture.

"The Six Feet Lane approach is crucial in our grassroots governance. When disputes arise, people step back, take a moment and think of others. We take them to the Six Feet Lane for a walk and recite a poem, many issues will be resolved," said Qiao Lijuan, an official of the Xiyuan Community in Tongcheng.

Xi's domestic inspections in 2024 highlight grassroots governance, cultural heritage

The China Pavilion at the 2025 Osaka Expo, which will open to the public by next Sunday, welcomed media visits on Monday, sharing sneak peeks highlighting the integration of Chinese philosophy and modern technologies.

As one of the largest foreign self-built facilities at the Osaka Expo, the China Pavilion has adopted the theme "Building a Community of Life for Man and Nature – Future Society of Green Development."

The pavilion consists of three components themed "past, contemporary, and future" respectively, featuring an integration of traditional Chinese philosophic norms and the modern sustainable development principles.

The first section of "Tian Ren He Yi," or the "Harmony Between Mankind and Nature," features traditional Chinese culture and history. The exhibited installations include a digital "waterfall of characters" demonstrating the Chinese writing system's evolution, with the introduction of Jieqi, or 24 solar terms on China's traditional lunisolar calendar that demonstrates the understanding of ancient Chinese people to the nature.

The highlights of the section are exhibitions of ancient Chinese archeological sites, including Sanxingdui in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Liangzhu in east China's Zhejiang Province, and Yinxu in central China's Henan Province, dating back to three to five thousand years ago. Replicas of cultural relics from the three sites are presented in the pavilion, among them are the earliest water conservancy system from the Liangzhu archeological site, and the mysterious Bronze Divine Tree from Sanxingdui.

"This is a replica of the Bronze Divine Tree made in the Shang Dynasty (1600BC-1046BC). It is among the earliest and largest single-piece bronze artifacts discovered in the world so far. Other exhibits here include the bronze standing figure with an animal-shaped hat, and the bronze mask. With a touch on the screen, we can learn about details of the cultural relics by examining their 3D models in an immersive way. And we also provide trilingual introductions for visitors from around the world to know about the relics," said a docent of the China Pavilion.

The second section, named after China's contemporary green development principle of preserving "Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains," presents descriptions of China's natural and cultural landscapes, ecological systems, and achievements in urban management.

Exhibits in the second section include introductions of China's national parks, and the two mega-sized ecological projects, the Dujiangyan Water Conservancy Project, which was initially built over two thousand years ago and which has been maintained and upgraded since then, and the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, one of world's largest afforestation projects.

In the third section of future developments, a model of China's Jiaolong submersible and exhibits of China's aerospace science projects share with the viewers China's spirit of exploration of the unknown.

China Pavilion of 2025 Osaka Expo opens to media for sneak peeks