8 | Thursday, August 1, 2019 HONG KONG EDITION | DAILY

years onYEARS ON

Editor's Note: As the People’s Republic of China prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary on Oct 1, China Daily is featuring a series of stories on the role regions have played in the country’s development and where they are today.

Area: 486,000 square kilometers GDP per capita 48,883 Unit: yuan ($7,104) 50000 2018 Tourism helps villagers 2018 91.22 40000 29,608 2012 30000

20000 4,956 10000 52 261 2000 Sichuan 1952 1978 climb out of poverty 0 90.97 1952 1978 2000 2012 2018 2012 Cliff­top outpost shows other poor rural areas how Total length of roads Unit: kilometers 2018 331,592 attracting visitors can kick­start development 2012 293,499 Population 2000 90,875 Unit: million 1978 82,391 1952 9,259 By HUANG ZHILING in Chengdu lion yuan, an 11.7 percent increase 2000 84.08 GDP [email protected] over the same period last year. Unit: billion yuan Total length of expressways Unit: kilometers Tourists come to the The total number of people 2018 7,131 A cliff­top village which was until employed in rural tourism in China 2012 4,334 recently only accessible by climbing village all year round; reached 8.86 million by the end of 2000 1,000 800 meters of precarious, dangling for the flowers in June, an increase of 7.6 percent year­ 4,067.81 rattan ladders, has become a major on­year. ($591.15 billion) 1978 70.72 tourist attraction in Sichuan province. spring, the leaves in 2018 Tourists from across the province autumn, the snow in Tailored policies 2,387.28 flock to Atuleer village, Zhaojue Changes in Atuleer village are in a 2012 winter and to escape county, Liangshan Yi autonomous line with discussion President Xi 392.82 prefecture to see the rattan ladders. the heat in summer.” Jinping had on March 8, 2017, with 2000 Sometimes they even try to climb delegates from Sichuan during the Ahke Jiushe, official with the 18.46 them. The cool climate of the village, annual National People’s Congress 1952 46.29 which is home to 500 people, also Zhaojue government in Sichuan session in Beijing. 1978 province attracts visitors trying to escape the Having learned about the difficult worst of the summer heat. lives of residents, Xi told the dele­ 2.46 1952 Ahke Jiushe, an official with the gates that poverty reduction Zhaojue government, said Atu­ 710,000 requires tailored policies and pre­ Source: Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Statistics MUKESH MOHANAN / CHINA DAILY leer, once impoverished and bare­ the number of poor people in cise measures, and sometimes ly known to the outside world Sichuan province at the end of patience and meticulous accuracy until several years ago, now boasts last year, down from 6.25 mil­ — like “doing embroidery”. improved roads have facilitated the a hotel with Wi­Fi as well as hot lion in 2013 Using such measures, Sichuan sales of local products like walnuts, water for guests to shower. reduced its number of poor people selenium tea and honeysuckle to the “Tourists come to the village all from 6.25 million in 2013 to 710,000 outside world, while raising farm­ year round; for the flowers in noticed by both the Ministry of Cul­ at the end of last year. ers’ incomes. spring, the leaves in autumn, the ture and Tourism and the National “As one of the main battlefields for Walnuts from Nanjiang, snow in winter and to escape the Development and Reform Commis­ poverty reduction, Sichuan was one renowned for having 22 mineral ele­ heat in summer,” Ahke said. sion. of the provinces with many poor ments, thin shells and a meaty pulp, Life in the “cliff village” garnered A conference on rural tourism people in 2013,” said Peng Qinghua, are in high demand. Such are Nan­ nationwide attention in 2016 when a held on Sunday in Chengdu was told secretary of the Sichuan Provincial jiang walnuts’ reputation for quality, Chinese newspaper published a col­ homestay accommodation in the Committee of the Communist Party that sellers certify their origin. lection of photos featuring students countryside would play an impor­ of China. The county’s soil is rich in seleni­ scaling the 1,400 meter cliff via the tant role in the transformation and Thanks to the targeted measures, um, a trace element with antioxi­ rattan ladders. upgrading of rural tourism, Xinhua it has since reduced the number of dant properties and Nanjiang When residents refused to leave reported. poor people by 1.1 million a year on produces around 3 million kilo­ the site despite the difficulties of liv­ Countryside homestays should average, Peng said. grams of selenium tea a year. ing there, the local government adhere to the village’s characteristics , which belongs The county’s honeysuckle, which spent 1 million yuan ($145,400) to and not be clones of a city hotel or to the Qinling­Dabashan Mountain is said to reduce heat and clear tox­ add a steel ladder with a handrail developed for “agricultural enter­ Area, a key area for poverty allevia­ ins from the body, has also obtained that has cut travel time to the near­ tainment”, according to ministry offi­ tion identified by the Central gov­ geographic certification. est town from three hours to one. cials. They should also cater to the ernment, has benefited from The Institute of Political Science China Telecom followed with an needs of the average traveller instead policies aimed at improving the of the Chinese Academy of Social investment of 1.5 million yuan to of high­end tourists, which deviates road network and promoting locally Sciences last year hailed the coun­ bring cellphone service and the from the purpose of homestays. produced agricultural goods. ty’s green development as a role internet to the villagers. Under a plan to provide special Nanjiang has given priority to infra­ model for 74 other counties and dis­ Interest from tourists has encour­ financial support, China Agricultur­ structure construction, building tricts in the less­developed Qinling­ aged a company in the provincial al Bank will provide a 100 billion paved roads that crisscross the county. Dabashan Mountain Area, as well as capital of Chengdu to invest in the yuan credit to the nation’s key rural He Bo, an officer with the county for most other mountain communi­ wider region, which is home to can­ tourism villages over the next five government information office, said ties across the country. yons, karst caves, hot springs and years. it now has 5,435 km of paved roads, The per capita disposable income primitive forests. Tourist visits to rural areas with 94 percent of them in the coun­ of its 700,000 residents rose from reached 1.51 billion in the first half of tryside, and every village is now con­ 131 yuan in 1978 to nearly 16,890 Homestay plans this year, an increase of 10.2 percent nected by one. yuan in 2017. The prospect of rural areas being year­on­year, while the total income Ninety­five percent of the land in People climb to Atuleer village in , Sichuan province, developed for tourism has been from rural tourism stood at 860 bil­ Nanjiang is mountainous and the Xinhua contributed to this story. along a steel ladder with a handrail. XINHUA

wang, from the Sichuan People’s Association for Friendship with For­ eign Countries. How panda center Shen said in the late Qing Dynasty (1644­1911), Sichuan people — who wanted the right to build, control overcame its breeding rut and manage their own railways — started the Railway Protection By HUANG ZHILING in Chengdu center, said “it used to be difficult Movement that triggered the revo­ for captive pandas to become rut­ lution to overthrow the Qing gov­ This summer, the world­famous tish and mate and for their cubs to ernment, which planned to Chengdu Research Base of Giant survive”. nationalize the railway system. Panda Breeding in Sichuan prov­ Researchers did not understand “The Monument to the Martyrs of ince has been flooded with visi­ the pandas’ habits. Thinking they the Railway Protection Movement is tors, many of them school children preferred a solitary life, they kept in the People’s Park in the center of on holidays accompanied by their each panda isolated in a tiny den. Chengdu,” Shen said. parents. As a result, the pandas became But the dream of building a rail­ The tranquil forest bases of the depressed and had difficulty way system for Sichuan was not China Conservation and Research becoming sexually excited. realized until the founding of the Center for the Giant Panda located Researchers provided captive People’s Republic of China, he said. across , Dujiang­ pandas with more opportunities The Chengdu­Chongqing Rail­ yan and Ya’an cities, Sichuan, have to interact. Pandas were placed in way, running from the capital to the also witnessed a sharp rise in the dens with members of the oppo­ then largest city in Sichuan, took number of tourists this year. site sex so they would become only two years to build and was Last year, there were 548 pandas familiar with each other’s smell, in completed in 1952. It was the first in captivity worldwide. A total of an attempt to encourage mating. The high speed Xi’an­Chengdu rail line and the Sino­Euro Cargo Railway crisscross in , railway built by the People’s Repub­ 285 were in the bases of the con­ Wild pandas are active for many Sichuan province. YANG ANWEN / FOR CHINA DAILY lic of China. servation and research center, the hours each day. In 1957, the Baoji­Chengdu Rail­ largest facility of its type in the To encourage them to move way, running to neighboring world, and 184 at the Chengdu around in captivity, the research­ province, opened. It was panda base. ers placed biscuits in their dens in Sichuan’s first rail link to another The successful programs are the hard­to­get­to locations. They also Flight to Chengdu easier than province. result of more than three decades gave the pandas frozen fruit which Since China started opening up in of hard work and research in Sich­ they had to handle in order for it to the late 1970s, Sichuan has made uan. thaw, Zhang said. finding a stairway to heaven great strides in transportation, said In the early 1980s, tourists had Many newborn panda cubs also Xia Yongjing, an information officer to visit the Chengdu Zoo if they died because of abandonment. Fifty with China Railway Chengdu Group. wanted a glimpse of a panda. percent of all newborns are twins, By HUANG ZHILING in Chengdu Breeding, where they took photos of Sichuan by reading a poem by Li Bai Trains not only connect with major The Chengdu panda base was but the mother usually only cares the cuddly bears, and later went to (701 to 762) who penned the famous Chinese cities, but since 2013, also not set up until 1987, while the con­ for one. Researchers would take a Before accompanying her son 980 the Jinsha Site Museum and viewed line about it being as hard to reach major European destinations for servation and research center had deserted baby and feed it milk. The kilometers to check out a bar in the gold foil sunbird, believed to be as heaven. The poem is required both passenger and freight services. only one base located in inaccessi­ researchers would then from time Chengdu made famous by a hit pop 3,000 years old, and other ancient reading for every Chinese school Sichuan also boasts 332,000 km ble mountain terrain in Wen­ to time switch it with the favored song, Mei Chun thought traveling to artifacts. The pair also had time to student, and there is a kernel of of roads, the most for any Chinese chuan county. In 1987, the cub so the mother unwittingly sup­ the Sichuan capital was like going to visit Mount Qingcheng, the birth­ truth at its center. province. Its expressways total 7,238 Chengdu panda base had only six ported both. another realm. place of Chinese Taoism. Sichuan was still a largely inac­ km, ranking third in the country, pandas, all rescued from the wild, Researchers also emulated the The middle­aged woman had “As a child, I was told traveling to cessible province in 1949 when the according to the Sichuan Provincial while the conservation and mother’s behavior in other ways, only three days to enjoy Chengdu Sichuan was as difficult as ascend­ People’s Republic of China was Bureau of Statistics. research center had 10. including cleaning and grooming after the pair flew from Wuhan, ing to heaven and it would take sev­ founded. Back then the province Chengdu Shuangliu International The sharp increase in the num­ the cub, Zhang said. Hubei province. But Mei and her eral days to reach Sichuan from had no railways or airlines, and Airport, one of the busiest airports ber of pandas in Sichuan has been “With the three primary obsta­ son — a 20­something studying in Hubei by boat,” Mei said. most of the roads were dirt. in the country, has 106 international largely due to researchers’ pains­ cles hindering the breeding of cap­ Canada — managed to see more “Thanks to airplanes, however, it The desire for better transporta­ routes and direct passenger flights taking efforts to solve panda tive pandas now overcome, a self­ than just the bar. is easy to travel to Sichuan.” tion in Sichuan also played a crucial to major cities in Asia, the United breeding problems. sustaining and growing panda They visited the Chengdu Mei likely formed her opinions role in the history and development States, Europe, Africa and the Asia­ Zhang Hemin, executive chief of population has been ensured,” he Research Base of Giant Panda about the difficulties of reaching of modern China, said Shen Zai­ Pacific region. the conservation and research said.