Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph
The disease of the old city and the difficulty of squeezing the city made Gleshan , a revolutionary holy land and the city's "green lungs" are overwhelmed. It urgently needs to "treat and recuperate"
transformation requires both face and inner strength; it requires a good image of the city and a sense of gain for the people. Chongqing Shapingba District focuses on "inheriting the red gene and building a solid green background", and carries out systematic governance. The roads are wider, less congested, illegal buildings are demolished, and the environment is beautiful. With the improvement of a series of supporting facilities, the joke that "there is Zhazidong inside, and the outside is also Zhazidong" has also disappeared. The Geleshan Road after the transformation of
is also elusive. All photos are provided by the Propaganda Department of Shapingba District Committee
Reporter: Wang Jintao and Zhou Kai are in the middle section of the Zhongliang Mountains that run through the main urban area of Chongqing from north to south. According to legend, "Dayu controlled the flood and summoned all guests to sing and enjoyed it." The Songle Mountain was named after it.
This is a red mountain. Revolutionary sites such as Baigongguan, Zhazidong, and Martyrs Cemetery gathered, and the famous novel "Red Rock" was born.
This is a green mountain. The forests are lush and the rivers are the veritable urban ecological green lungs.
This is another mountain in the city. To the east is the core urban area of Chongqing, and to the west are new development areas such as University Town and Science City. It has a permanent population of more than 110,000 and nearly 1,700 small and medium-sized enterprises.
With the rapid development of the city, the Geleshan area has been "grayed" in appearance and traffic congestion due to factors such as long construction time, small regional space, and unreasonable layout. The disease in the old cities of megacities is becoming increasingly serious, and it is urgently needed to "treat and recuperate".
From "sickness" to "gradual recovery", how can Geleshan solve the difficulties of the old city in the city? What are the inspiration for improving urban quality? Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters walked into Geleshan to see how urban governance can give citizens and tourists a thumbs up.
The red mountains are already overwhelmed
The mountain city of Chongqing is named after its many mountains, and the most famous one is Gele Mountain. At the foot of Gele Mountain and on the banks of the Jialing River, is the ancient town of Ciqikou, a Bayu specialty town built in the Song Dynasty.
Going to Gele Mountain to admire the revolutionary martyrs and experience the red culture has long been a must-have for tourists from other places to Chongqing. Ciqikou became popular on social media, which also further surged tourists.
Wang Xiaoyun, deputy director of the Shapingba District Cultural Tourism Committee, said that from January to September this year, Shapingba District received more than 28 million tourists, mainly concentrated in the Hongyan-Ciqikou Scenic Area.
Some roads in the mountain city are already narrow, and the dense population and a large number of tourists have put huge traffic pressure on the Geleshan area. Lingyun Road, which connects Hongyan-Ciqikou Scenic Area, is less than two kilometers long, but the slope down the hill is steep and only two lanes. A large number of cars are blocked here for an hour.
At the same time, black cars and tour guides around Hongyan Scenic Area are constantly banned, and the phenomenon of attracting and slaughtering and slaughtering customers is serious; old residential areas along the Geleshan are not only privately built, lack of property management, insufficient sewage pipeline supporting facilities, leading to dirty and messy areas and polluting urban rivers.
63-year-old retired employee Zhang Chengli lives at the foot of Gele Mountain. She said: "The slopes to Zhazidong and Baigongguan scenic spots are steep and narrow. People and cars are mixed together. Traffic jams are common and not safe."
"Some of the old communities and old buildings along the way have been for decades, and they are dirty and messy." Zhang Chengli sighed, "There are many tourists from other places, and it is so dirty and messy that it affects the city's image."
This is the case at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain is also not optimistic.
Geleshan forest vegetation is lush, and some areas belong to national forest parks, and are the natural "green lungs" of Chongqing's main city. The narrow and long trough valley area on the mountain is relatively flat. Because it is close to the urban market and has low factor prices, since the 1980s, a large number of small furniture factories and small food factories have gathered here, and have been known as the "celebrity village of township enterprises".
Due to historical reasons, most of these small and medium-sized enterprises lack complete pollution control facilities, and the direct discharge of waste gas and sewage is more prominent.
"They were produced here many years ago," Pan Lijing, captain of the Law Enforcement Detachment of the Shapingba District Ecological Environment Bureau, introduced that according to the current environmental standards, a considerable number of them are "scattered, messy and polluting" enterprises.
Gleshan area is inconvenient to travel, low environmental quality and poor travel experience. The number of complaints from local citizens and foreign tourists remains high.The disease in the old city and the difficulty of crowding the city have overwhelmed the revolutionary holy land of Geleshan and the city's "green lungs". It is imperative to treat diseases and chaos.
Geleshan Street before rectification.
Geleshan Street after rectification.
The difficulty of rectification is daunting
In the past, Shapingba District Government also wanted to rectify the Geleshan area, but the complex situation made local cadres afraid.
"On the one hand, the renovation requires large-scale demolition and demolition of illegal buildings, and the entire area will be damaged," a local cadre told reporters, "In addition, there are many universities, institutions, enterprises and other units here, with different ownerships, and coordination is also difficult."
Since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have vigorously carried out urban mountain protection in view of Chongqing's unique mountain city landscape.
In June 2018, Shapingba District proposed to "carry forward the Hongyan spirit and carry out area rectification", and launched a crackdown on years of stubborn problems, and a battle to improve the quality of the city began.
regional development, planning is the first. In view of the characteristics of the integration of mountains, rural areas and cities in the Geleshan area, Shapingba District clarifies the positioning and function of the area in the "13th Five-Year Plan" outline, and coordinates production, life and ecological space from five aspects: space management, green economy, and ecological restoration. With the plan, Shapingba District has carried out comprehensive and systematic governance of Geleshan around "inheriting the red gene and building a solid green background".
Gleshan area is narrow and has a high building density. If you want to relieve transportation, improve the environment and improve supporting facilities, you must speed up demolition and renovation.
On Lingyun Road, the main channel leading to Zhazidong and Baigongguan, the reporter saw that the fourth-class highway, which was sharp and steep in the past, was only six or seven meters wide, is now a gentle road of 22 meters wide, with lush trees on both sides. Workers are speeding up the final construction to ensure that they are officially opened to traffic by the end of this year.
"We have re-examined the traffic in the Geleshan area. The renovation of Lingyun Road is a 'opening gun'," said Liu Yanxiang, deputy director of the Shapingba District Transportation Bureau. "This road has not been moved for decades, has low grades, and there are many old buildings on both sides, so it is very difficult to renovate."
"From the entry into the site in May this year to the trial operation of the National Day, more than 20,000 square meters of land were acquired and more than 7,000 square meters were demolished in more than four months. The road was also demolished and straightened, and the height was raised and widened, completing almost impossible tasks." Liu Yanxiang said.
Gleshan area has some employees' living areas of old enterprises in the last century. Due to historical reasons, there are many residents in difficulty here.
Songshan Chemical Factory, which had gone bankrupt in the 1990s, had 118 employees crowded in a cramped dormitory building, and many families had to share kitchens or bathrooms. Decades have passed, and some dormitory buildings have become dilapidated houses, with numerous private buildings and dirty environments.
Lingyun Road was originally an old factory building of the Third Construction Company in Shapingba District, a collective enterprise established in the 1950s. Due to poor management and insolvency, the company owed 276 employees wages and social security fees for more than 30 years. Seven homeless employees lived in the company, and were a major petitioner in the local area for many years.
"There are many serious patients among these residents, and some of them don't even have decent furniture at home. Once we visited an old lady's house. She took out a housing certificate issued in the 1950s and 1960s, and there were also quotations from Chairman Mao." A cadre in Shapingba District said that due to historical reasons, there are obstacles to these residents' enjoyment of relevant resettlement policies.
Tighten the bull's nose and strive to break the stubborn diseases
Renovation of old cities requires not only face but also inner strength; it requires not only a good image of the city, but also a sense of gain for the people.
Shapingba District has always adhered to the "people's livelihood" bull's nose, used the policy of renovating shantytowns, properly handled bankruptcy liquidation, and invested 160 million yuan to demolish and relocate dilapidated buildings around Hongyan Scenic Area, allowing more than 200 households who have lived in old dormitory buildings for many years to move into new houses.
demolition compensation is also given priority to solve the wages and social security arrears of employees of the third construction company, arrange affordable housing for employees without houses, and help three needy employees re-employed.
"I really didn't expect that all the wage arrears for many years have been solved, and employees without houses also have a house to live in. We are in a good mood and life is hopeful!" Shen Deming, a 60-year-old retired employee of the Third Construction Company, said excitedly.
Land acquisition and demolition that improves the quality of Hongyan Scenic Area also involves more than a dozen surrounding enterprises and institutions. "In the past, due to ownership issues, the local government had no management rights and was afraid of offending others, and they dared not fight hard." A cadre interviewed said, "If we continue, the quality problem of Hongyan Scenic Area will be difficult to effectively solve. This time we are ruthless and do not recognize people."
Shapingba District strengthened coordination with these units on the one hand, and on the other hand, it formally sent a letter to request a deadline for demolition. With the support of the municipal government, these enterprises and institutions cooperated very well and the relevant buildings were demolished successfully, making valuable space for the upgrade of Hongyan Scenic Area.
In order to solve the mixed flow of people and vehicles and allow citizens to share green mountains, Shapingba District has planned 14 60.8 kilometers of mountaineering trails, and 7 and 13.5 kilometers have been built; 130,000 square meters of illegal buildings around the scenic area have been demolished, and more than 350 parking spaces have been added; black cars and black tour guide patrols have been carried out, and the tourism order has been significantly improved; the background investigation of Hongyan-Ciqikou Scenic Area is improved, and the creation of 5A-level scenic spots has been fully launched...
While "brightening the red" at the foot of the mountain, the "greening transformation" on the mountain is also drastic.
The trough valley area on Gele Mountain is 28 kilometers long from north to south and 5 kilometers wide from east to west, with an area of only 10,100 hectares, but there is 1 street and 2 towns. Nearly 1,700 small and medium-sized enterprises have brought tens of thousands of migrant populations, and the permanent population on the mountain has reached more than 110,000. Just like a small county town, the load can be imagined.
"Geleshan can be said to be the area with the most concentrated small and medium-sized enterprises in the main city of Chongqing. This has its historical reasons." Zhu Bin, deputy director of the Economic and Information Commission of Shapingba District, said that among these enterprises, illegal construction, illegal land use, and environmental pollution are more prominent, and they are no longer suitable for the high-quality development direction of megacities and must transform.
Shapingba District clearly stated that Geleshan will no longer develop industry, and reported to relevant departments to abolish the four urban industrial parks on the mountain.
is easy to control the increment. How to solve the stock problem of nearly 1,700 small and medium-sized enterprises?
Shapingba District eliminates the "one-size-fits-all" approach and disposes in accordance with the classification of "closing and relocation batches, standardizing and rectifying one batches, and developing one batches" - enterprises that meet environmental protection standards will continue to be retained after rectification, and those who cannot meet the standards will be closed and eliminated according to law, and those who cannot enter the park nearby will be relocated.
In the Yuhuangguan Industrial Gathering Area of Xinkaisi Village, Geleshan Street, dozens of furniture factories, food factories and machinery factories were no longer able to produce at full capacity. These enterprises may be closed, relocated or suspended production and rectified, and some illegal factories have been demolished.
"In the past, this place was filled with the smell of paint and pickled pepper, and it was very common for wastewater to be discharged directly. Now the air is getting better and the noise is gone." A local villager told reporters.
It is not easy to carry out comprehensive rectification of nearly 1,700 small and medium-sized enterprises. Tang Shuhua, secretary of the Party Working Committee of Geleshan Street, and Li Maosong, mayor of Zhongliangshan Town, introduced that ideological work should be done in place and environmental protection policies should be explained clearly.
"We have connected with surrounding cities and counties many times, organized promotion meetings, and built a relocation platform for enterprises." Li Maosong said.
For enterprises that fail to make effective rectification, multiple departments will jointly enforce the law strictly.
A furniture company in Geleshan Street secretly discharged waste gas many times, but it still failed to make any effective rectification after being named by the central environmental protection inspection. The street and district environmental departments conducted in-depth investigations and obtained the conclusive fact that their waste gas and dust emissions did not meet the standards. After imposing administrative penalties, the company still failed to meet the rectification standards and was eventually ordered to shut down and relocate.
must be blocked and loosened, ensuring the smooth and orderly rectification work. At present, the Geleshan area has closed and relocated 912 small and medium-sized enterprises, suspended production and rectified 617, standardized acceptance of 53, demolished 2,340 illegal construction sites and 2.11 million square meters, and no group visits have occurred.
While treating pollution with heavy blows, Geleshan simultaneously carried out the restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes and grassland ecosystems - 25,000 mu of trees were planned to plant 25,000 mu, 13,000 mu have been completed; ecological restoration of abandoned mines was launched, 50 hectares of limestone pits and 36 collapses were managed; 27.26 kilometers of new sewage pipeline network were built, and 26 kilometers were planned to be built; 7 reservoir operating rights were recovered, and urban black and odorous water bodies were treated...
"Bright red and green" brought about a change in quality
polished red and added green, and a brand new Geleshan is becoming increasingly present!
At the entrance of Hongyan Scenic Area, more than 1,700 red plum trees symbolizing the spirit of Hongyan were planted, and the plum forest greening project has been completed. There are many tourists on the shady mountain trails.
The roads are wider, less congested, illegal buildings are demolished, and the environment is beautiful. With the improvement of a series of supporting facilities, the joke that Hongyan Scenic Area "is Zhazidong inside and Zhazidong outside" has also disappeared.
Wang Xiaoyun, deputy director of the Shapingba District Cultural Tourism Committee, introduced that during this year's National Day, the number of tourists complaints in Hongyan Scenic Area decreased for the first time.
"Although I live nearby, there are not many people coming to Geleshan before. This year, the new greening facilities are very beautiful, and the mountaineering trails are particularly convenient, and it is obviously not as traffic jams as before." Speaking of the changes, Zhang Chengli, a citizen who often climbs Geleshan, was very satisfied.
Driven by the improvement of the scenic spot quality, the management level of the old city in the Geleshan area has been significantly improved. Since last year, Shapingba District has ranked first in the third-party polls for urban management assessment in the main urban area of Chongqing for five consecutive quarters.
On Geleshan, the withdrawal of a large number of "scattered and polluted" enterprises has increased the number of days with good air in Geleshan in 2018 by 30 days year-on-year, and has received praise from most villagers.
But on the other hand, these enterprises transferred collective land in the village, driving the development of the tertiary industry, and the closure of enterprises affected the income of a few villagers.
"The environment is good, but income has declined. Should these enterprises be closed?" Some villagers questioned.
You need to change the birds when you open the cage.
Deep in the late autumn Gele Mountain, the mountains on both sides are as dark as dark as the valleys, and the fields are connected by ponds, caves, rivers and streams are embedded in it, like an ink painting.
In a megacity, such pastoral scenery is unique. Shapingba District takes advantage of Geleshan's ecological and location advantages to accelerate the improvement of rural living environment and the integration of agricultural and tourism industries to promote rural revitalization, and shorten the pain period of industrial exit.
In the Yilu Huange Ecological Park of Gele Village on Gele Mountain, the botanical garden, picking garden, homestay, stone forest landscape, classic car exhibition area, etc., form a 1,000-acre pastoral complex with rich business formats. The annual flower viewing and fruit picking festival attracts a total of 2 million tourists.
Gele Village Party Secretary Chen Gang introduced that previously, factory rent for small and medium-sized enterprises was the main source of income for the village collective economy. However, it is inevitable that Geleshan’s industrial industry will withdraw. Since 2012, Gele Village’s collective economy has invested in creating this project and exploring industrial transformation.
In Zhongliang Town, Longquan Village, the carefully designed stone walls, mountain paths, and newly renovated Bayu folk houses and small courtyards have a unique charm. Cheng Zishui, a 66-year-old villager, took a reporter to visit his yard and said: "The government has transformed the yard and toilet, and the villagers' living habits have become more civilized, and more tourists have become more and more tourists."
"There is a large population and a small land here, and it is not enough to rely on the primary industry alone. The ecological park project drives the tertiary industry through the primary industry, and there are many people on the weekends, allowing tourists to experience the beautiful countryside while eating, drinking, and having fun." Chen Gang said.
Next to Chengzishui's farmhouse, a boutique homestay using the villagers' homestead is being renovated. "After rectifying the 204 small and medium-sized enterprises in the town, only 81 have met the standards," Li Songmao, the mayor of Zhongliang Town, pointed to the "Happy Farm" project opposite, which integrates grass sliding, picking, and land recognition and planting, and said, "So we accelerate the creation of a beautiful ecology, make good use of the ecology to attract agricultural tourism projects, and drive villagers to become rich."
"After several years of exploration and relying on a good ecology, our village has also built 41 nursing homes, with about 3,000 beds. Now the leisure and elderly care industry has replaced the industry and become the main income of the village's collective economy." Chen Gang is very confident.
At present, Shapingba District has fully implemented rural living environment improvement in Geleshan, renovated more than 1,000 rural houses, added 20 kilometers of four good roads, cultivated 16 key agricultural enterprises, and held Tulip Festival, Lotus Festival, Fruit Picking Festival and Harvest Festival for two consecutive years, achieving tourism revenue of about 50 million yuan.
"In the past, I was afraid that old city renovation would affect economic development and urban operation." A relevant person in charge of Shapingba District Party Committee and District Government introduced, "Through more than a year of hard work, although the Geleshan area has invested a lot in the rectification, it has solved the unresolved problems for many years."
"Ecological environment is improved, the business environment is better, and the people have a stronger sense of gain. Since last year, Shapingba District's investment promotion and economic growth have grown against the trend, which once again proves the necessity and urgency of green development!" said the person in charge.
Geleshan's high-quality development is far from a stop. For Shapingba District, red is the true color and green is the background color. Relevant persons in charge of Shapingba District Committee and District Government introduced that in the next step, we will continue to make enough "embroidery skills" to improve the management level of the Geleshan area, increase industrial transformation and ecological restoration, make the Hongyan Scenic Area more "red" and Geleshan greener, and accelerate the realization of the organic unity of green waters and green mountains, gold and silver mountains, ecological beauty and people's wealth.
