Liangshan, a Rising Star along the Yellow River

As the only county situated along the Yellow River in Jining, Liangshan County puts industry development, ecological preservation and people's livelihoods as its key agenda items. On the basis of implementing comprehensive regulation projects in the beach area for ecological conservation, promoting intensive and economical utilization of water resources, ensuring the long-term stability of the Yellow River and strengthening coordinated regional development, Liangshan County has shown new development strengths and been contributing to ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin. Now, in Liangshan County, a better atmosphere has been created to strengthen the protection and management of the Yellow River, with the concept of green development more accepted and a stronger sense of gain and happiness obtained by people.

An aerial view of the Yellow River [Photo via the Publicity Department of CPC Liangshan County Committee]

In recent years, the ecological environment of the Yellow River basin in Liangshan has been continuously improving, with rare species of birds having been seen frequently. While strengthening management, Liangshan County has made great ets to build an ecological protection system along the river, planting trees on additional 10,000 mu (666.67 hectares) of land on average per year, removing silt from more than 3,000 mu (200 hectares) of the lake surface, building 8.6 kilometers of green corridors for environment protection around wetlands and a peripheral buffer zone of about 84 hectares.

In addition, Liangshan County has enhanced the implementation of the project of "Building Residential Communities for Relocated Residents, Household Appliance Industrial Parks and Modern Agriculture Demonstration Areas at the Same Time", so that people in the beach area can "move out, settle down and get rich". After the residents of the Yellow River beach areas moved to new communities, the 19 abandoned natural villages, through unified planning and arrangement, have had their abandoned houses, courtyard walls, streets and house foundations demolished, leveled, cleaned and transformed into 2,300 mu (153.33 hectares) of high-quality farmland.

On the basis of accelerating the shift in driving forces for development and promoting the high-quality industry development throughout the county, Liangshan pays special attention to optimizing and greening industrial structures and strives to create a modern industrial corridor along the Yellow River. The county focuses on the "four leading industries" of special purpose vehicles, education services, green food and rare earth new materials, and follows the path of featured and cluster development. Meanwhile, it strives to promote the development of the port and shipping economy, drives the growth of big industries with social logistics, enhances the integrated "port-industry-city" development, and bolsters the transformation and upgrading of the county's manufacturing industry.