A view of Chaotianmen port in Chongqing Photo: Liu Yang/GT
“Hearing about something 100 times is not the same as seeing it once. I love Chongqing, and most of us have been blown away by the scenery, by the nature and by the atmosphere of this metropolis,” Moritz Nicolaus Lohmann, co-founder of Hamburg Welcomes You, Germany, told the Global Times on Saturday, after he felt the city’s strong pulse for high-quality development and opening-up.
Lohmann is one of the foreign journalists who participated in the 2024 Belt and Road Journalists Forum, which kicked off in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality on Saturday. The forum also provides attendees with tours to the city’s flourishing industries from advanced manufacturing sector to the charming tourism landscape.
During the tours, several foreign journalists hailed the development model of the mountain city, which is driven by the green development and new quality productive forces. They noted that Chongqing has provided pragmatic experience for their home cities’ future upgrade and high-quality development.
Sustainable development
“For someone like me who was here 10 years ago, the city is nearly unrecognizable. There are high-rise buildings, new bridges, and a few metro lines have been built,” Lohmann said
However, things that used to look old and run down were not all replaced by new high-rise buildings. Instead, they were upgraded through processes of urban revitalization, he noted.
At Beicang Cultural and Creative Street in Chongqing, old warehouses were turned into public gathering places and cafes, outdated streets into fashionable walking alleys, and factories into galleries. This not only saves resources like cement and benefits the environment, but also creates a welcoming space that appeals to both locals and tourists, Lohmann said.
“I call for more projects like these and argue that countries like mine, Germany can learn a thing or two from the example of Beicang. We will probably not build many 30 story high-rise buildings any time soon. But we might be able to turn an industrial area into an art district, just like Chongqing,” he said.
Kirtan Bhana, director and editor of The Diplomatic Society, a media outlet in South Africa, was impressed by the automated robotic arms he saw at one of China’s leading electric vehicle (EV) makers Seres Group’s super factory.
When visiting the intelligent auto manufacturing factory, people can observe that each assembly procedure is carried out smoothly and precisely, with minimal human oversight. The super factory has more than 3,000 robots with major procedures already realizing 100 percent automation, while a new car rolls off the production line every 30 seconds, according to the Seres Group.
“What South Africa can learn from Chongqing and the rest of China is that how to develop sustainably without damaging the ecology, that is to say, environment-friendly development,” Bhana told the Global Times on Saturday, noting that green products including EVs are crucial to meet the goal.
The green development has become a major trend around the world. Bhana noted that China and South Africa can enhance cooperation in this field under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as the continent has many of the minerals that are required to create EV batteries.
In addition to promoting urban renewal and green transformation, Chongqing has also pursued the high-quality development of its tourism industry which balances well with the ecological protection.
Located in the southeastern part of Chongqing, along the Wujiang River, the largest tributary of the upper Yangtze River, Wulong district is endowed with abundant natural resources and charming natural landscape including the Fairy Mountain.
The Three Natural Bridges, located in the Fairy Mountain, is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site renowned for its breathtaking karst landscape. While exploring the geological wonder, Elizabeth Sade, a senior reporter from the Media Association of Solomon Islands, was struck by the three massive natural stone bridges, marveling at the wonders created by nature.
“The three bridges that we visited were something that I was thrilled about. Alongside, the strong connection that I saw between locals and the environment also amazes me,” Sade told the Global Times on Saturday.
He Qing, secretary of the CPC Wulong District Committee of Chongqing, told the Global Times that the local government has strengthened ecological environmental protection while developing tourism, and firmly eliminating predatory resource exploitation and overcapacity in tourism reception.
At the same time, the first real-time monitoring system for caves at a heritage site in China has been established, He noted.
It is a global issue when we consider the challenges of climate change, especially for island nations like the Solomon Islands, said Sade. “In Chongqing, I saw that the city can integrate ecological protection and tourism development together. So I hope that when our media outlets come back home, they can speak to authorities or go out and do more stories that will influence them to come up with the policies that will be able to promote tourism and at the same time, keep the ecology as green as possible,” Sade noted.
The western forefront
On August 23, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held a meeting to review policies and measures to open up a new vista in the large-scale development of China’s western region.
Efforts should be made to “deepen reform comprehensively and blaze a path of Chinese modernization that suits the realities of the region,” the meeting said, while identifying work priorities in a number of fields, including promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, advancing green and low-carbon development as well as enhancing the openness of the economy.
Chongqing is an important strategic pivot point for the development of western part of China, as well as the link between the BRI and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Boosted by policy support, unique geographical advantage and new technologies, the flourishing industries seen in Chongqing mirror the high-quality development of China’s western region in the new era and the country’s inland opening-up policy.
Through visiting Chongqing, we see that China is sharing its knowledge and information through the BRI, said Bhana, noting that it not only increases connectivity among people, but also creates better understanding. “This is where I see the idea of peace and modest prosperity,” he stressed.
Source: GLOBAL TIMES
Article By Liu Yang