This is a scene of the red land of Dongchuan, Yunnan. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
Farmers working in the field in Hongtudi Town, Dongchuan District, Kunming City, Yunnan Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
Farmers in Hongtudi Town, Dongchuan District, Kunming City, Yunnan Province plowed fields and sowed seeds in the fields. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 20 (Reporters Wang Changshan and Pang Mingguang) On May 20, Xinhua Daily Telecom published a report titled "The "Strategy" for the "returned" city Dongchuan".
In Yunnan, there is a special small town in Dongchuan: it prospered because of the mines, and it was prosperous for a while with its abundant copper ore resources; it also declined because of the mines, and was "degraded" after its resources were exhausted.
Today, this poor county, whose poverty incidence rate was as high as 52.88%, has successfully removed the "hat" of poor counties, and the forest coverage rate has also increased from 13.3% to 40.55%.
"The comeback is coming, and the flow is endless" - a plaque in the lobby of the office building of the Dongchuan District Party Committee expresses the ambition of this "relegated" city to achieve rebirth with green development.
The stones washed down by the mudslide are as big as houses
Looking back on the past, Dongchuan has a brilliant and profound history.
Dongchuan copper culture has a long history. According to historical records, "Horse Stepping Copper" appeared in Dongchuan very early. During the Western Han Dynasty, ancestors were able to mine copper ore by the "fire-burning water splashing method", and smelting copper ingots and minting coins with charcoal. Its smelting scale and mining history are ahead of China's copper industry. 70% of Qing Dynasty coins were cast in Dongchuan copper, which was known as the "Tiannan Copper Capital". Although
has been mined and smelted for a long time, Dongchuan is still one of China's copper production bases, and its geological reserves and concentrate copper content rank among the top in the country. When we came to Dongchuan, many people went to the copper mine to see the ancient mining sites, the ancient copper transportation road and today's modern mining scenes.
is based on rich copper ore resources. After the founding of New China, the country listed Dongchuan copper ore as one of the national key construction projects during the "First Five-Year Plan" period. Tens of thousands of builders made silent contributions in the depths of the mountains at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters. In 1958, Dongchuan City was established as a prefecture-level city. From the First Five-Year Plan to the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, Dongchuan has always been one of the key areas for copper mining in my country. Over the past 60 years, Dongchuan has contributed 600,000 tons of copper and 200,000 tons of silver to national construction, making outstanding contributions.
has been continuously cutting firewood and picking copper for a long time, which has led to the ecological environment deterioration.
At that time, Hu Jianghui, secretary of the Dongchuan District Party Committee, introduced that the mountainous area of Dongchuan accounts for 97.3% of the total area, with high mountains and deep valleys and steep terrain, and the ecological environment is already very fragile. Long-term mining of minerals has brought about a series of ecological and environmental problems such as regional ecological function degradation and soil erosion, among which mudslide disasters are particularly prominent.
The "mother river" of Dongchuan is a first-class tributary of the Jinsha River. Liu Ling, deputy director of the Dongchuan District Mudslide Prevention and Control Institute, introduced that there are 107 mudslide ditches on both sides of the river, with a total length of about 138 kilometers. They are densely distributed and fully developed. They are rare in the world. They have become one of the most frequent mudslides and are called the "World Mudslide Natural Museum."
, especially the Jiangjiagou Mudslide, are famous for their frequent blasts, large scale, and complete preservation of impact fans. They are an ideal base for natural mudslide observation testing and research in the world.
11961, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established a mudslide observation and research station in Jiangjiagou, where the most serious mudslide disasters in Dongchuan, and carried out research on basic mudslide theory and mudslide disaster reduction technology. The spectacular scene of the mudslide eruption can be seen at the Jiangjiagou Mudslide Observation Station. Liu Ling introduced that Jiangjiagou once had an average of about 15 mudslides each year, with the highest amount reaching 21 times a year. Some foreign experts also often come here to conduct research. The frequent mudslide disasters that occur in
not only input a large amount of mud and sand into the Jinsha River water system, but also seriously threaten the lives and property of local people. Every year during the rainy season, residents on the mountain must beware of mudslides. He Bingtian, a retired miner who had experienced the mudslide disaster in Heishan Valley in Dongchuan in May 1984, recalled: "When the mudslide comes, it is like a wild horse that breaks away from the reins. The stones that rush down are as big as houses. Many families are flooded by mudslides..."
Why does Yunnan have no "cloud B" license plate
Many outsiders have a question after they arrive in Yunnan, why does Yunnan have no "cloud B" license plate.In fact, the "Yun B" license plate once belonged to Dongchuan.
For many years, Dongchuan's industrial industrial structure has shown the characteristics of a single industrial structure mainly based on copper resource mining and selection, "everything serves the mine", and both losses are lost. Mineral resources were on the verge of exhaustion at the end of the last century, and for this reason, Dongchuan quickly fell into a dilemma. In December 1998, Dongchuan City was approved to be revoked and the Dongchuan District of Kunming City was established, becoming a "relegated" city, and the "Cloud B" license plate became history. Behind the "degradation" of urban areas is the all-round decline of Dongchuan: the poverty incidence rate in the whole region was once as high as 52.88%; in 1985, the forest coverage rate in Dongchuan was only 13.3%, and the soil erosion area accounted for 70% of the country's land area; in 2003, the registered urban unemployment rate in the whole region was as high as 40.2%...
"Mountains and rivers are broken, cities are dilapidated, enterprises are bankrupt, and hope is destroyed." These four sentences were widely circulated in the local area, and are portrayed by the economic and social conditions of Dongchuan at that time. Faced with challenges, Dongchuan has actively transformed and developed, and has also received high attention from the state, province and city, and various support policies have been introduced.
"People go down the mountain, trees go up the mountain", Dongchuan explores the restoration of the ecological environment, continues to carry out mudslides and soil erosion control, and insists on using the "two legs" of immigration relocation and ecological construction to promote the transformation of resource-depleted cities.
In accordance with the strategic positioning of the ecological restoration demonstration zone, Dongchuan has implemented actions such as creating new silver huan forests in areas below 1,600 meters above sea level, returning farmland to forests, greening of river floodplain in the Xiaojiang River Basin, construction of seedling bases and forest industry development, so that the mountains can be seen green. "For many poor areas, green waters and green mountains are gold and silver mountains. But Dongchuan is different from other poor areas. To develop green, we must first have green waters and green mountains and trees." Hu Jianghui said.
tree planting has become an important task for Dongchuan ecological restoration, but it is not easy to plant a tree here.
Dry and hot river valley area, the evaporation of moisture is several times the precipitation, and under the thin layer of soil is hard sand and gravel. Initially, using the traditional tree planting method, the survival rate was only 20% to 30%. Planting again and again, failure again and again, the barren mountains remain the same.
In 2011, Dongchuan District chose to conduct a dry and hot river valley drought resistance afforestation experiment in Linjiadu, Lumao Village, Bigu Street, where mudslide disasters occur frequently, and tried to plant the drought-resistant tree species introduced from abroad - Xinyinhehuasan. He Yong, senior engineer of the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Dongchuan District, said that Linjiadu is surrounded by barren mountains with barren trees, and landslides and mudslides occur every year. There is little rainfall in the dry season. The heavy rainfall in the rainy season is almost impossible to store due to the large slope of the mountain. "When we first started the afforestation experiment, we dug two meters deep on the hillside and could not see the tide soil."
Testers learned from the local people’s methods handed down from generation to generation and explored the “funnel ground fish scale pit land preparation technology” that can greatly improve the land’s water storage capacity: dig funnel-shaped deep pits on the hillside, expand the upper mouth of the pond, enhance the water storage capacity, and plant a seedling in one pond. From a distance, the rows of tree pits on the hillside are like fish scales, which is why this technology is named.
He Yong said that this technology can effectively accumulate rainwater from hillsides during the rainy season, and the survival rate of seedlings in experimental forests has suddenly increased to 90%. Today, the 3,000 acres of new silver acacia that Linjiadu has been experimented and promoted and planted has become a forest, and there has never been any mudslides in this forest again. "This technology has also been widely promoted and planted along the Xiaojiang River, achieving green dyeing of barren mountains."
According to statistics, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Dongchuan District completed a total of 153,000 mu of barren mountains, returned farmland to forests, and planted 3.92 million trees voluntarily. In 2020, the first forestry ecological restoration PPP project was invested 2.06 billion yuan, and the forest coverage rate in the whole region has increased to 40.55%, with an average annual growth of 1.89% during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Now, when I came to Dongchuan, I clearly felt that the surrounding hillsides had turned green.
"In the city, cutting a tree must be approved, and green development must be made a comprehensive consensus. We are confident that by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the forest coverage rate in Dongchuan will reach 50%. " Hu Jianghui said.
Change your thinking, mudslide is also the "baby"
In March 2009, Dongchuan was included in one of the second batch of national resource-depleted cities to transform. Resources are depleted and land is barren. What should Dongchuan, which is deeply impoverished, rely on to achieve poverty alleviation? This has become an urgent problem.
"Green development is the only way out for Dongchuan." Hu Jianghui said that in order to protect the extremely fragile ecological environment, Dongchuan District requires all mining companies that fail to meet environmental protection standards to be shut down with the determination of a hero. At present, the mining pits in the whole region have been reduced from more than 1,800 to only more than 90.
At the same time, Dongchuan makes full use of local rich resources such as tailings slag, river sand, etc. to vigorously develop new industries such as modern building materials industry. "The permeable bricks we independently developed have high strength, long life and good permeability. They are in short supply in the market and are even sold to Southeast Asia." In the factory located in the Dongchuan District Reemployment Characteristic Industrial Park, Xing Helian, general manager of Yunnan Zhongzhou Sponge City Building Materials Co., Ltd., is full of confidence in her products.
Xing Helian said that the reason why the company came to Dongchuan from Jiangsu to set up a factory was because it attracted the rich slag resources here. "The factory consumes hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of slag a year. Dongchuan's rich and cheap slag resources provide us with a strong competitive advantage." Since its official launch in May 2017, Yunnan Zhongzhou Sponge City Building Materials Co., Ltd. has reached 320 million yuan in annual output value, creating about 40 million yuan in annual tax revenue, driving employment of hundreds of local people.
, which once made the local slag that was very troubled, turned into a sought-after new building material raw material. The various local specialties of Dongchuan that are "hidden in the mountains and unknown" have also become "rare treasures" that city people are rushing to buy in recent years.
The "post-90s" girl Yunli is a well-known local specialty e-commerce expert in Dongchuan. A few years ago, she went to a mountain village by the Jinsha River as a guest and accidentally discovered a business opportunity for local specialties in the Dongchuan Mountains.
At that time, the loquats in the small mountain village were overwhelming and the fruits were big and sweet. But because the villagers had no sales, the loquat fruits rotted all over the ground under the trees. Looking at the rotten loquats, Yunli felt very heartbroken. She took the initiative to help the public promote sales on platforms such as WeChat, but unexpectedly helped the villagers sell 13 tons.
Since then, Yunli has traveled all over the villages and villages in Dongchuan, including flowering potatoes, Dongchuan noodles, colorful peanuts... all kinds of local specialties from the mountains have been sold from her to all parts of the country.
"Our physical stores and online stores have annual sales reach tens of millions of yuan." Yunli said that whenever she sees the local specialty products grown by poor households continuously sold to Beijing and Shanghai, it feels that it is worth it no matter how hard or tired it is.
What is even more unexpected is that the mudslide that once made people in Dongchuan feel scared day and night has also become a unique local tourism resource. The mudslide erosion has formed a unique geographical environment in the valley and has been sought after by off-road racing enthusiasts.
Since 2004, the China Dongchuan Mudslide International Automobile Cross-Country Race has successfully held 16 competitions, and was officially upgraded to a national official competition in 2007, becoming a top domestic automobile off-road event. It was upgraded to an international event in 2012, and won the title of "2020 China Sports Tourism Boutique Event".
"Mine transformation and green development, introduce modern building materials industry to turn waste into treasure, and promote the expansion of new industries. Implement green economic responsibility audits when the top leaders of various departments and townships resign, and do not promote those who fail to meet the standards and problems." Hu Jianghui said that the green development of the industry can promote the improvement of ecological civilization.
"A river of clear water, green mountains on both sides of the shore" is coming true
51-year-old poverty-stricken household Yan Qingwen lives in an enviable "river view room": looking out from the yard, there are green green mountains around and clear river water in the valley.
Yan Qingwen's family originally lived in a group of people in Sahai Village, Tangdan Town, Dongchuan District. In Yi language, "Sahai" means "a place where there are fruit trees by the water", but Sahai Village was bare in the past. "Our family used to be on the hillside, and we lived in a tile-topped and earth-walled house. There were not many trees on the entire mountain." Yan Qingwen said, pointing to the hillside opposite.
With the help of the local rural dilapidated housing renovation project, Yan Qingwen's family moved to the current centralized resettlement site in Wuguishan. The new house has more than 130 square meters, with green tiles and white walls, spacious and bright. What made the old man even more happy was that the resettlement site was surrounded by water on three sides and backed by mountains on the other side. The excellent scenery attracted some tourists to visit.
"This mountain changes so much that the sewage cannot be seen, and the mountain turns green." Yan Qingwen said that in the past, the mountains were burnt wither and scorched in winter, without a trace of vitality."Now in winter, the mountains are green, and even the climate has changed, and the air has become much wet." After
moved from the mountain, the original fields of Yan Qingwen's family were transferred to the enterprise to plant papaya trees. He and his wife worked in Papaya Forest, and each person earned 80 yuan a day, and the income from working alone was tens of thousands of yuan a year. "My son works in another place and has to rely on our subsidies every month." Yan Qingwen said that this is due to the improvement of the environment, otherwise no one will come and life will not be good.
Chen Jiang, secretary of Dongchuan District Party Committee, said that over the years, Dongchuan District has invested funds to control natural disasters such as mudslides and landslides, and has taken measures such as closing mountains and raising forests to stabilize soil and stabilize slopes, building dams to block silt and silt and drainage troughs to reduce disaster losses. It plans to invest 1.21 billion yuan to implement the PPP project of comprehensive water environment management and carry out comprehensive remediation of small rivers.
reporter saw at the Xiaojiang River Basin management site that mudslides flowed in the drainage trough, and the former mudslide beaches on both sides have now been transformed into fertile fields with fragrant rice. Liu Ling said that the number of mudslides in Dongchuan has occurred very few times in recent years.
The once "scalded and scorched" mountain has not only changed. Tangdan Town is a traditional mining area in Dongchuan. There is a huge abandoned tailings pond in the valley of Sahai Village. After some renovation, it has now become a colorful sea of flowers with an area of 500 acres.
"In the process of tailings pond management, we focus on adapting to local conditions and maximizing ecological benefits." Chen Jiang introduced that the local investment was 3.5 million yuan to implement closed-door soil and green planting for the tailings pond in Sahai Village, and plant safe, ecological and tourist-worthy gerbera and other flowers.
's abandoned tailings pond has become a sea of sightseeing flowers and has become a "Internet celebrity" attraction in Dongchuan. "The tailings pond turns into a sea of flowers, which is rare in the country. Last year, there were tens of thousands of tourists here every day." Chen Jiang said that this sea of flowers not only reduced soil erosion, but also brought new opportunities for the local development of rural tourism.
In December 2020, Sahai Village was successfully selected as a beautiful village in Yunnan Province. Chen Jiang said that the local area will focus on developing characteristic homestays, Papaya Mountain Theme Park and Xiaoqing River Rafting in the future.
In April 2019, Dongchuan District announced its poverty alleviation. All 28,655 households and 104,344 poor people in the district have been lifted out of poverty, and the poverty incidence rate has dropped from 52.88% at the time of file establishment to 0.
"Whoever dares to destroy the environment, I am the first to worry about him." Yan Qingwen said. What is gratifying is that the road to green development has allowed the people of Dongchuan, who have experienced the suffering of ecological environment deterioration, to taste the real sweetness. The concept of "green water and green mountains are gold and silver mountains" has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts.
"A river of clear water and green mountains on both sides of the river, this is the Dongchuan in our dream." Hu Jianghui said that he believed that this beautiful painting will become a reality soon. (End)
