The city is on the sea, and the sea is in the city. Walking in Xiamen is full of scenery.
“The fiery red and lush Poinciana trees and the soaring egrets are symbols of this city’s pioneering and enterprising spirit of daring to fight and win.” In September 2017, the ninth BRICS leaders’ meeting was held in Xiamen. General Secretary Xi Jinping, who serves in Xiamen, looks back on the past years and tells the story of Xiamen affectionately.
He praised Xiamen as "a beautiful ecological garden city where man and nature coexist harmoniously."
Xiamen is an important birthplace and first practice place for Xi Jinping’s ecological civilization thought.
In 1985, Xi Jinping moved south from Zhengding, Hebei Province and took up the post of deputy mayor of Xiamen.
During his tenure, he took the lead in the preparation of the "Xiamen Economic and Social Development Strategy from 1985 to 2000", which for the first time included a special chapter on "ecological and environmental issues" in the regional economic and social development plan. This was unprecedented not only in Xiamen, but also in the country. First of all.
At that time, a series of "firsts" and "first mentions" came to fruition in Xiamen. A series of pilot and basic work laid a solid foundation for Xiamen, which became the early vivid practice of Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought and transformed into the "high-quality" Xiamen today. , good-looking, modern and international”.
Wanshishan’s “misentery” cured
In 1985, the winter on Ludao was suddenly cold but then warm.
In the Wanshi Mountain Scenic Area, in some places, sand and soil were dug, and mountains were dug to extract rocks. The peaks turned into "plague heads" and the environment was severely damaged.
In this regard, representatives of the Xiamen Municipal People's Congress not only criticized those who committed indiscriminate deforestation and harvesting, but also pointed out the government's ineffective management.
△Comparison of the past and present in Gulangyu Island’s “Bagua Tower” area in Wanshishan Scenic Area
"The National People's Congress supervision allows us to see omissions in government work. We must use this as a new starting point to create a new situation in Xiamen's urban construction and environmental protection work, unify leadership, and establish a responsibility system at all levels."
Xi Jinping, who was the deputy mayor of Xiamen at the time, asked urban management, planning and other departments to conduct in-depth on-site investigations to find out the situation in the city and study countermeasures.
"First, the entire island's sandfields and illegal quarrying areas will be closed. The Urban Management Office will send propaganda vehicles to the mountains and countryside to promote publicity. The public security, urban management, and urban construction supervision teams will dispatch major forces to patrol and inspect." "Relevant departments must formulate detailed rather than general policies. The implementation details will be published and then announced so that everyone knows.”
Regarding specific implementation measures, Xi Jinping put forward requirements from an overall perspective -
"For issues such as whether mining can be carried out on the island, how large it should be, where to do it, mining methods, and protection measures, relevant experts will form a group to conduct exploration and review, propose a plan, and submit it to the National People's Congress for review. The general principle is: for mining on the island Maximum protection must be adopted, and management, planning and approval must be strengthened for off-island and suburban counties.”
Since then, relevant departments have strictly implemented the quarrying and sand excavation system and severely cracked down on illegal mining. A war to defend the natural resources and environment has swept the city, and the phenomenon of private digging and indiscriminate mining has been effectively curbed.
"With his lofty stance and sincere words, Comrade Xi Jinping not only showed his deep affection for this land, but also had clear and persuasive views, which made everyone more clear about their attitude towards environmental protection." At that time, he was deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Xiamen Municipal People's Congress. Xu Zuyi once recalled.
△The popular attraction "Rainforest World" of Xiamen Garden and Botanical Garden, an important component of Gulangyu-Wanshishan Scenic Area.
The work has been done for a long time, and it is passed down from generation to generation.
At the 2018 National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the strictest system and strictest rule of law should be used to protect the ecological environment.
Protecting the ecological environment must rely on systems and the rule of law.
Today, there are more than 30 existing laws in the field of ecological environment in my country, and a comprehensive, pragmatic, effective, and strict legal system for socialist ecological and environmental protection with Chinese characteristics has initially been formed.
The institutional system of the "four beams and eight pillars" nature of ecological civilization has basically taken shape.
Yuandang Lake’s “good looks” are hard-won
Yuandang Lake is like a green pearl embedded in the center of Xiamen Island. It is the golden business card of today's "high-looking" Xiamen.
However, the Yuandang Lake was not like this.
In the 1970s, due to embankment construction and land reclamation, Yuandang Lake became a nearly closed inner lake.
More than 100 companies, large and small, have sprung up around the lake, and nearly half of the city's industrial and domestic wastewater is discharged into the lake.
Garbage is strewn everywhere, mosquitoes and flies breed, sewage flows across the river, fish and shrimp disappear, and the surrounding people complain endlessly.
"When will Yuandang Lake cease to be black and smelly?" Xi Jinping empathizes with the citizens' call for governance of Yuandang Lake.
In the process of rapid urban development, environmental problems have gradually emerged, and the management of Yuandang Lake has become a development issue facing Xiamen.
"Can local destruction be used to carry out other aspects of construction? I think it is very clear that Xiamen cannot exchange for other aspects of development at this price." Xi Jinping's words were sonorous.
△Data map of Yuandang Lake before treatment
On March 30, 1988, Xi Jinping presided over a special meeting on strengthening the comprehensive management of Yuandang Lake, which started a tough battle in Xiamen's environmental pollution control.
In response to the problem of funding for lake management, the meeting clarified that "the municipal finance will allocate 10 million yuan each year this year and next," accounting for nearly 10% of Xiamen's capital construction expenditure at that time.
Continuous financial investment has laid the financial foundation for the transformation of Yuandang Lake, and also provided a clear answer to the question of whether economic growth should be achieved at the expense of the ecological environment.
Implementing the lake management policy proposed by Xi Jinping, the lake area management is getting better and better:
At the end of June 1990, the project of absorbing tide into the lake and revitalizing the water body was completed.
In June 1992, the first phase of the Yuandang Lake improvement project with an investment of 110 million yuan was completed.
In 2005, Xiamen invested nearly 80 million yuan in special funds to launch the most thorough and largest-scale renovation of Yuandang Lake in Xiamen's history.
In September 2018, Yuandang Lake was promoted to the only municipal lake in Xiamen.
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△On January 24, Xiamen Yuandang Lake Bailuzhou Park and surrounding urban landscape.
Yuandang echoes, galloping without stopping.
Over the past 30 years, as a key environmental improvement project in Xiamen, Yuandang Lake has undergone five phases of large-scale renovation.
What was once a smelly lake has transformed into a "city green lung" and "city living room" with rippling blue waves, soaring egrets and blooming flowers.
The "Yundang Fishing Fire" that disappeared in the urban changes in the past has transformed into a more dazzling new Xiamen scene today - "Yundang Night".
The comprehensive management of Yuandang Lake not only reflects the changes in Xiamen's ecological environment, but is also an important starting point for Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought. It is also a key step for China to explore the harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
The green road to wealth in Junying Village
Junying Village is a remote administrative village with the highest altitude in Xiamen. It used to take hundreds of turns along the dirt road from the foot of the mountain to the entrance of the village.
Now, the village has been connected to the road.
In the 1980s, in order to develop the tea industry, villagers cut down all the forests on the mountains, causing ecological damage and causing serious soil erosion.
With such depletion of water and fishing, the per capita annual income of villagers is only more than 200 yuan.
A turning point in the fate of the military camp village occurred in 1986.
In April of this year, Xi Jinping, then member of the Standing Committee of the Xiamen Municipal Party Committee and deputy mayor, came to this remote and impoverished mountain village.
Because the soil and climate are suitable, Junying Village has a tradition of growing tea.
The villagers have no experience in growing fruits.
At that time, Xi Jinping gave suggestions on planting persimmons, and also contacted relevant departments to provide a batch of high-quality saplings and poverty alleviation funds.
Gradually, the hillside of Junying Village turned into a persimmon forest; the area of tea planting on the mountain plains also increased significantly, exceeding 2,800 acres in 1997.
In July 1997, Xi Jinping, then deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee, came to Junying Village again.
Seeing that except for tea gardens and persimmon groves, the other hills were bare, Xi Jinping further proposed: "Grow a variety of teas and fruits, and don't forget forest greening. We must develop the mountains below and 'wear hats' on the mountains."
△Tea farmers in Junying Village pick tea in the tea garden.
With the direction of continued development, Junying Village has taken great strides to plant tea and trees, walking on two legs faster and faster.
On the mountains, afforestation and greening are carried out.
At the foot of the mountain, a processing plant has been built. Tea planting, picking, frying, processing, packaging and transportation can all be completed in the village.
Adhering to both greening barren hills and developing the tea industry, Junying Village has achieved green trees on the mountains and green tea on the mountains, and the ecology and industry have developed and promoted each other.
The trees on the top of the mountain absorb water when it rains and release water during drought, consolidating and conserving the water and soil. In this way, the tea in the mountains also grows better.
Tea covers the bare surface of the mountain plains, which not only enriches vegetation, promotes ecological balance, but also sequesters carbon and purifies the air.
"Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. Junying Village has followed the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping and embarked on the road to green prosperity." Gao Quanwei, secretary of the Party branch of Junying Village, said with emotion.
Junying Village currently has 4,100 acres of ecological forest, surrounded by mountains, green everywhere, and hares and pheasants appear in the mountains.
The forests and tea gardens can sequester more than 1,600 tons of carbon every year. Carbon stamp trading has increased the collective income of the village by nearly 100,000 yuan. Green resources have brought real money to the people.
Junying Village has become a vivid example of Xiamen City's implementation of Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thoughts, witnessing changes in development concepts and development methods.
△Beautiful view of Colorful Pond in Junying Village
On the coast of the East China Sea, you can chase the waves for thousands of miles.
"Looking up is the fresh blue, looking around is the pleasant green." In September 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping spoke highly of Xiamen's ecological environment during his attendance at the BRICS Business Forum in Xiamen.
Following the blueprint drawn up by General Secretary Xi Jinping, Xiamen has always insisted on paying equal attention to ecological protection and economic development, managing the environment and improving people's livelihood, and has become a window to beautiful China.
Producer | Geng Zhimin
Producer丨Xinglai
Written by Luan Xiyan
Vision丨Jiang Yuhang