Major environmental investment in iconic Guangxi waterway points way for sustainability

Wu Youxiang, standing below a rocky hillside and pointing to patches of green, had reason to be happy: The plants had been growing slowly but surely under his watch for most of 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 some of his work. Well-spaced terraces were carved into the hard surface to hold shrubs as they took root, while a web of slim pipes to water the 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, which had been used as part of a stone quarry that was closed in May 2016, is now part of a major green drive to protect and promote environmental sustainability in the area.

Guilin itself is one of the country's top scenic spots. The city 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 back of the 20-yuan bill.

During the two sessions annual gathering in 2015, President Xi Jinping urged the Guangxi delegation to the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, to protect the mountains and waters of Guilin and the region's good ecology.

On Sunday, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, reiterated the protection of the river ecology during remarks 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 ecological environment should never be damaged. At a river dock, he listened to reports made by local officials on environmental protection in the river valley and on efforts to clean up quarries and illegal sand mining.

The former quarry under Yanshan district, not far from the banks of the Lijiang River scenic area, is among more than 20 similar quarries closed in recent years. Re-greening the hill, nestled amid Guilin's imposing karst formations, reflects the community's increasing resolve to cherish and conserve its iconic waterway as an integral part of its multilevel, multisector development model. This model ranges from tourism and textiles to building on the ecological, social and economic benefits from the area's improving environment.

Huang Feng, deputy director of the city's science and technology bureau, said the latest measures and projects, supported by the innovation and development of the eco-agricultural, cultural and healthcare industries, have achieved initial 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 ecological 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 the country's tourism sector, as it is one of the first major Chinese cities to tap peak tourism waves, going back two decades. Guilin recorded nearly 19 million visitors in 2009, with the number surging to more than 80 million in 2017.

But the growth also threatened the Lijiang River environment. Rapid urbanization had already posed a threat to water quality, with local authorities recording about 175,000 metric tons of industrial and domestic sewage discharged into its waters each day 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 upgraded boats that take them on lake and river cruises.

"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 the refurbished vessels taking visitors on tours, said the hardware is the best offered 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 the tourism sector looks beyond the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wang Zixi, director of the Guilin tourism bureau, said the city is poised to tap the latest opportunities and trends 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, has become another model of Guilin's environmental inroads.

Covering more than six hectares, the island in the heart of the city used to be home to 23 households of more than 130 residents, with waste from restaurants that catered to visitors and from other daily activities discharged directly into the river, threatening the ecology and the safety of urban drinking water.

Five years ago, Fulongzhou's residents began to move off the island to better housing in the city as part of a drive to restore the area and turn it into public green space. The move has 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, head of the Lijiang River management committee. "The island has become an ecological park for the general public and 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 extending beyond the banks of the river.

The Sanqianli Leisure Tourism Resort in Xingping, under Guilin's Yangshuo county, opened in 2019 and covers more than 100 hectares, with an investment of over 3 billion yuan.

Yi Ke, general manager of Guilin Palm Culture Tourism Investment Co, which is behind the site's development, said more than 300 village households have kept their original homes and farmland, which they can use to complement any work that they take up 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 the Esquel Group, one of the world's largest shirt makers and exporters, a strong commitment to the principle of sustainability has driven the company to invest in what it said is 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 production site in Guilin, which covers more than 50 hectares and involves more than 2 billion yuan of investment.

The company said the site 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, which has more than 2,000 employees, said the former brick kiln and its related development less than 10 kilometers from Lijiang River had a harmful ecological impact.

The group acquired the plot of land, and nature then 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 well-being 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."

The returns from environmental investment 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 Beijing-based Yanjing Beer, has a production capacity of 1 million tons in the city.

The facility covers about 33 hectares and employs 3,000 workers, with an automation rate of 80 percent that makes it "doubly efficient", said He Zhongshun, Liquan's deputy general manager.

"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, noncoal furnaces by June."

Production supervisor Deng Yi, 55, who has worked at the brewery since it was established, said the results of its high standards and environmental priorities are clear.

"In the old days, beer could be good one day and different the next. But consistency is key in what we do," he said.

"Just like the state of the river and its environment, our beer can now always be good."

Xinhua contributed to this story.