River shines under city’s stewardship
Environmental investment in iconic Guangxi waterway points toward greater sustainability, better future
Wu Youxiang, pointing to patches of green from below a rocky hillside, had reason to smile: The plants had been growing under his watch for the past five years.
“The Zenia insignis legume-type trees are best. They grow in tough conditions and can be good for the ground,” he said.
Closer inspection of the hill revealed his work: Well-spaced terraces carved into the hard surface held shrubs as they took root, while a web of slim pipes for watering plants covered the slopes alongside thinly spread creepers.
Wu, 36, is a technician at the Yanshan district agriculture and rural affairs bureau of Guilin, a city in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
The hill, used as part of a stone quarry closed in May 2016, is now part of a major green drive to protect and promote environmental sustainability in the area.
One of the country’s top scenic spots, Guilin boasts breathtaking karst mountains that are part of Guangxi’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites landscape, and the winding Lijiang River. Guilin’s natural draws are fittingly printed on the 20-yuan bill.
During the annual two sessions in 2015, President Xi Jinping urged the Guangxi delegation to the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, to protect Guilin’s mountains and waters.
On April 25, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, reiterated the protection of the river’s ecosystem while inspecting a section of the waterway.
Hailing the river as the only treasure of its kind in China and the world, Xi said its environment should never be damaged. At a river dock, he listened to local officials’ reports on environmental protection in the river valley and on efforts to clean up quarries and illegal sand mining.
The former quarry under Yanshan district is among more than 20 similar quarries closed in recent years. Regreening the hill reflects the community’s resolve to cherish and conserve its iconic waterway as an integral part of its multilevel, multisector development model. This model spans tourism and textiles to building on the social and economic benefits from the improving environment.
Huang Feng, deputy director of the city’s science and technology bureau, said the latest measures and projects, supported by innovation and development of the eco-agricultural, cultural and healthcare industries, have shown results that can be replicated beyond Guilin.
“The in-depth protection and utilization of the Lijiang River is in line with moving urban and rural industry away from the waterway to reduce any negative impact. With ecological protection and restoration, the Lijiang River basin ecology has been effectively repaired, managed and protected,” Huang said.
Targeted environmental restoration projects for Guilin’s karst natural heritage sites in scenic spots cover more than 100,000 square meters, with afforestation of more than 10,000 hectares and the Lijiang River basin’s forest coverage growing by over 80 percent, he said.
With more than 120 billion yuan ($18.5 billion) invested, restoration of the karst heritage landscape aims to “continuously enrich and improve sustainable development, resource conservation, ecotourism, and agricultural and cultural innovation and capacity”, Huang said.
Guilin is considered a pioneer in China’s tourism sector as one of the first major Chinese cities to tap peak tourism waves, going back two decades. Guilin recorded nearly 19 million visitors in 2009 and more than 80 million in 2017.
But this growth threatened the Lijiang River. Rapid urbanization had already posed a threat to water quality — local authorities recorded about 175,000 metric tons of industrial and domestic sewage discharged into its waters daily as early as the 1970s, despite efforts to curb pollution.
Moves to promote green urban growth as well as the pillar tourism
sector along the vital waterway are now reaping rewards. At the landmark Elephant Hill scenic area in central Guilin, tourists enjoy lake and river cruises on upgraded boats.
“We’ve invested more than 46 million yuan to refurbish 39 cruise vessels, and injected 122 million yuan to build new ones. The vessels use green materials and power generation to stem emissions and reduce carbon footprints, with fuel consumption cut by 10 percent to 15 percent compared with ordinary diesel engines,” said Li Feiying, head of the Guilin group that manages the tourism area.
Song Yongjun, 41, who captains refurbished cruise vessels, said the hardware is the best in his 17-year career.
“It’s a big change from the more polluting vessels we used to have. They’re better and safer now,” Song said, adding that the improvements put them in good stead to handle
renewed travel demand as COVID-19 is better controlled.
Wang Zixi, director of the Guilin tourism bureau, said the city is poised to tap opportunities in the post-pandemic cultural tourism sector.
“We will integrate our resources with high-quality development, including the urban areas, building Guilin into a world-class scenic city,” she said.
Fulongzhou, a major island on the Lijiang River, is another model of Guilin’s environmental inroads.
Covering more than six hectares, the island in the heart of the city was home to 23 households of more than 130 residents, with waste from restaurants and other daily activities discharged directly into the river, threatening the safety of urban drinking water.
Five years ago, Fulongzhou’s residents began moving from the island to better housing in the city as part of a drive to restore the area and turn it into public green space. This helped cut river discharge by at least 8 tons a year.
“In recent years, Guilin invested a total of 87 million yuan to implement and upgrade the comprehensive environmental management of Fulongzhou,” said Guo Hongxing, Lijiang River management committee head. “The island has become an ecological park for the general public and (enabling) tourists to be closer to the river and feel its beauty.”
Guilin’s approach to sustainability is fueling upgrades in its tourism, hospitality and other businesses beyond the riverbanks.
The Sanqianli Leisure Tourism
Resort in Xingping, under Guilin’s Yangshuo county, covering more than 100 hectares, opened in 2019 with an investment of over 3 billion yuan.
Yi Ke, general manager of site developer Guilin Palm Culture Tourism Investment Co, said more than 300 village households have kept their original homes and farmland, which they can use to complement work at the resort as local stakeholders in the area’s growth.
“We introduced the ecological concept into the creation of our entire tourism system at the onset, to uphold conservation development, including our entire river basin, to preserve its current state and the riverbed,” he said.
For Esquel Group, one of the world’s largest shirt makers and exporters, a strong commitment to sustainability has driven the company to invest in an “enormous amount of resources to reduce waste, and conserve and recycle natural resources such as water and energy”.
The approach is noticeable at Integral, the group’s more than 50-hectare, over 2 billion yuan production site in Guilin which the company said uses “innovative hardware and software solutions to conserve energy consumption”, committing to zero industrial wastewater discharge and biodiversity conservation.
Zhang Wei, general manager at the site with more than 2,000 employees, said the former brick kiln and its related development less than 10 kilometers from Lijiang River had a harmful environmental impact.
The group then acquired the plot of land. Nature returned the “best gift” after the green investment, Zhang said, adding: “We have invested considerably in the environment here, a somewhat traditional industry investing in nontraditional ways more in line with nature, but it’s certainly worth it. You can see it in the wellbeing of our employees, translated into better creativity, innovation and productivity. It matches respect for the environment and respect for people that will reap long-term rewards.”
Environmental investment returns are also flowing back for Guilin’s Liquan Beer brewery, one of the city’s most recognizable brands. Set up in 1987, the brewery, now under Beijingbased Yanjing Beer, has a production capacity of 1 million tons in the city, covers about 33 hectares and employs 3,000 workers, with an 80 percent automation rate that makes it “doubly efficient”, said deputy general manager He Zhongshun.
“As a brewery, water is incredibly important to us. This bottle of beer here is about 85 percent water. That all comes from the Lijiang,” he said.
“Right from the beginning, we protect the source and pay great attention to it. We minimize any waste generated.… Our discharge is treated in line with, and even above, strict national standards. We are also switching to natural gas, non-coal furnaces by June.”
Production supervisor Deng Yi, 55, who has worked at the brewery since the beginning, said the results of the firm’s high standards and environmental priorities are clear.
“Just like the state of the river and its environment, our beer can now always be good,” he said.