Gongcheng Yao autonomous county in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its founding on Sept 25.

Located in southwest Guilin, Gongcheng is 108 kilometers from downtown Guilin and was approved by the State Council to be established as a Yao autonomous county in February 1990.

Covering an overall area of 2,149 square kilometers, the county governs six towns, three counties, and 117 administrative villages. The population of the county amounts to 305,600, of which around 60 percent of it is comprised of members of the Yao ethnic group.

The gross domestic product of the county in 2019 reached 9.05 billion yuan ($1.32 billion) and the county's fiscal revenue climbed from 24 million yuan in 1990 to 593 million yuan in 2019, a 24 times increase.

It had been lifted out of poverty in 2012, being the first autonomous county for ethnic minorities in Guangxi to do so, and its poverty incidence has decreased from 8.85 percent in 2016 to 0.5 percent in 2019.

The county's average per capita disposable income reached 20,517 yuan in 2019. The per capita disposable income of urban residents in 2019 was 34,846 yuan and the per capita disposable income of rural residents increased from 607 yuan in 1990 to 14,115 in 2019 after 30 years of development.

Gongcheng has focused on ecological civilization construction to realize the coordinated and sustainable development among its economy, society, population, and environment. The forest coverage rate in the county has increased from 47 percent in 1987 to the current 82.46 percent.

It has received a total of 5.28 million tourists in 2019, up 53.5 percent year-on-year, and the total tourism consumption increased by 50 percent to 6.28 billion yuan.

Great efforts have been made in developing ecological agriculture in the county, with its planting area of fruits like persimmons, Shatian pomelos, and peaches amounting to 506,800 mu (33,786.67 hectares), making Goncheng the largest production base in terms of scale in Guangxi.

Gongcheng has also been known as "the county of persimmons in China," as the planting area of Gongcheng persimmons is 194,000 mu, with a production of 1.26 million metric tons. 

Gongcheng Yao autonomous county in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its founding on Sept 25. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]