Located
along the Yangtze River, ex-fisherman Song Bin's fish restaurant touts
the finest view of the Liziba station, a landmark of southwest China
metropolis Chongqing where sky trains running through a residential
building are an everyday feature. Song,
47, used to serve his guests with delicious dishes aboard his own ship
on the Yangtze River. Back then, Chongqing, a major city in the upper
reaches of the Yangtze, beckoned droves of tourists by its
quintessential combination of the majestic river view and fine dining.
Behind the marvelous dining pleasure were leftovers stealthily dumped
into the waterway by some ships despite a government ban. On
Jan. 1 this year, a 10-year fishing ban took effect in pivotal waters
of the Yangtze, after 332 conservation areas along the river enforced
the fishing ban a year ago, to help the river recover from dwindling
aquatic resources and degrading biodiversity. President
Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the ecological protection
of the 6,300-km-long Yangtze, China's longest and the world's
third-longest river, as well as the high-quality development of the
Yangtze River Economic Belt which covers nine provinces and two
municipalities and accounts for more than 40 percent of the country's
population and economic aggregate. The
status and role of the river and the economic belt mean the development
along the river must prioritize ecology and "green development" to
respect natural, economic and social rules, said Xi, also general
secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman
of the Central Military Commission, as he presided over a meeting on
advancing the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in
Chongqing on Jan. 5, 2016. The
Yangtze River boasts a unique ecological system. Restoring its
ecological environment will be an overwhelming task and no large-scale
development will be allowed along the river at present and for a rather
long period to come, he said at the meeting. In
recent years, provinces and municipalities along the river have stepped
up conservation efforts for controlling pollution and pursuing green,
high-quality growth. Over
the past five years, a large number of highly polluting and
energy-intensive enterprises have been shut down, and more than 8,000
chemical enterprises along the Yangtze have been closed, transformed, or
relocated, said Luo Guosan, an official with the National Development
and Reform Commission on Tuesday. Song
is one of about 230,000 fishermen who relied on the river for their
livelihoods but have now embraced new lives after moving ashore. He
opened a restaurant and rented a farm for fish breeding to produce
ingredients for his restaurant, using the government's compensation for
the fishing ban. A total of 415 fishermen in Chongqing's Jiangbei
District bade farewell to their boats and have found new jobs. "We support the ban and hope that it will allow the Yangtze River to rest and recuperate," he said. Efforts
should be made to strengthen the protection and restoration of
ecological and environmental systems and coordinated work on the upper,
middle, and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Xi said at a symposium
on comprehensively advancing the development of the Yangtze River
Economic Belt held November last year in east China's Nanjing city, in
the lower reaches of the river. The
restoration of the ecological environment of the Yangtze River should
be a major priority, Xi said, adding that the establishment of a
mechanism should be accelerated whereby protection and restoration of
the ecological environment shall be reasonably rewarded, while those
responsible for the destruction of the ecological environment shall pay
their due price. Hunan
Province in the river's middle reaches has closed and dismantled all 39
illegal wharves along the Yangtze River mainstream while restoring the
ecological environment there. The province has also planted trees
covering more than 1,300 hectares along the river. Hu
Cunku, an ex-fisherman near Dongting Lake in the Yangtze basin in
Hunan, has joined 500 other former fishermen and become a "fish
protector," earning a monthly income of 3,000 yuan (463 U.S. dollars)
from the employment opportunity offered by local authorities in Yueyang
City. "Fishing
used to be our livelihood and now protecting fishery is for future
generations," said Hu, who patrols the lake every day. As
of mid-October, all registered 28,148 fishermen in Hunan had stopped
fishing and over 97 percent of those willing to work had found
alternative means of livelihood. The
ex-fisherman Song, who continues to reside by the riverside in
Chongqing, is surprised to spot rare visitors like black-headed gulls
and wild ducks. "The water is even clearer than it used to be about 20 years ago when I started fishing," he said.
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