Tide of Change

By Zhang Shasha

Li Zhengde regards the Yangtze River as the highway of his youth. Born in a small town in south Chinas Hunan Province， Li grew up near the Zijiang River， a tributary of the Yangtze， and in 1976， boats were the major mode of transport there. In the 1990s， he had to take a year off from school due to illness and sailed to nearby Wuhan Province on his cousins wooden junk. It was his first trip outside Hunan and the one-month sailing experience is etched indelibly in his mind. He still remembers graphically how the fi nless porpoises would leap out of the water， marking curves in the spray.

Li is now a photographer living in Shenzhen who has since seen a larger world. Though 20 years have elapsed since he left his hometown， he still misses it and the river. In 2009， he decided to travel back every year and photograph the cities and lives along the Yangtze to track the progress of urbanization as well as atone for not paying enough attention to his hometown when he was young.

Rapid rise

In the 1980s， when Li was young， his grandmothers family owned three boats. The smallest one was used as a ferry across the river， the medium one was a passenger boat owned by his sister and used to transport travelers from the town to other counties. The largest one was the wooden junk belonging to his cousin that was used to carry cargo down the Yangtze to other provinces such as Hubei and Zhejiang.

Later， a steel freighter replaced the wooden boats， roads were built alongside the river and opened to traffic， and the transportation of people and goods no longer relied solely on the water. Subsequently， many passenger ship routes were canceled and the familys smallest boat was put out of commission. Modern transportation networks comprising high-speed railways， expressways， bridges， tunnels， ports， civil aviation and urban rail transit developed， facilitating travel and boosting the Chinese economy.

The changes are the fruits of the policy of reform and opening up started in 1978. In the course of the changes， the Yangtze River Economic Belt was conceptualized. In 2014， the State Council， Chinas cabinet， released a guideline for developing the Yangtze River Economic Belt into a coordinated development zone for interaction and cooperation between eastern， central and western regions. In 2016， the Outline of Yangtze River Economic Belt Development Plan was published.

“The 40 years of reform and opening up have vitalized Chinas cargo transportation on the Yangtze. The annual volume of freight traffic has increased 60 times， ranking first in the world for several years，” Tang Guanjun， Director of Changjiang （Yangtze） River Administration of Navigational Affairs， Ministry of Transport， said.

In addition， the belt produces one third of the countrys food， and accounts for more than half of Chinas inland river navigation mileage， making it an artery of national economic growth. According to a report by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences， the GDP of 110 cities along the belt in 2017 reached 36.8 trillion yuan （$5.34 trillion）， accounting for 44.5 percent of the national GDP. Its per-capita GDP was 65，835 yuan （$9，550）， 10.4 percent higher than the national average.

Pollution perils

However， the rapid economic development in the past decades has taken a heavy toll on the Yangtze. The river has become polluted and aquatic life has become endangered.

“Ive not seen a single fi nless porpoise since 2009，” Li told Beijing Review. “Those scenes of finless porpoises leaping out of the water are a thing of the past.”

Li described some of the effects of water pollution. “Once in Anhui in south China， I found two stone-like objects，” he said. “They turned out to be thermocol sheets.” He thinks they came from the upper reaches of the Yangtze. Years of being submerged in polluted water had turned them black and hard as stone.

According to a survey released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on July 24， 2018， the population of the highly endangered Yangtze finless porpoise is estimated to be about 1，012. The number declined 13.7 percent annually between 2006 and 2012.

Vice Minister Yu Kangzhen said the rapid decline is rooted in human activities， pollution of water bodies due to construction， shipping and overfi shing， which either caused direct harm to the species or damaged their habitat.

Green development

In recent years， a series of guidelines and regulations have been issued to deal with problems such as shutting down illegal docks and chemical factories. Measures have been taken to strengthen the approval process for the use of river and lake shorelines and their supervision and management.

While inspecting along the Yangtze in April 2018， Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to protect the river. He said destructive development of the river should be avoided while pursuing highquality economic growth.

“We must proceed from the longterm interests of the Chinese nation to put restoring the ecological environment of the Yangtze River at a dominant position， making all-out efforts to protect it， and forbidding overdevelopment of the river，” Xi said at a symposium held on April 26， 2018.

“The Yangtze River is Chinas mother river， and we must protect it， while enterprises are the major force in protecting and building the ecological environment of the river，” Xi said.

One of Chinas major clean energy companies， China Three Gorges Corp. （CTG） played a part in the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in the past decades， and has assumed the task of environmental protection and improvement of the river.

One of the key measures is implementing urban sewage treatment so that sewage is not dumped indiscriminately in the river. The company focuses on four pilot cities which have to address problems like low effi ciency， poor infrastructure， outstanding accounts and incomplete industry chains.

“We adopted different methods in accordance with the different conditions of the pilot cities，” said Li Wei， deputy head of preparatory work for CTGs ecological protection. New innovative technologies are being explored， such as smart water service systems. “We aim to work out replicable， promotional and sustainable means for future development，” Li said.

He added that a second batch of pilots is also underway， expanding from cities to counties and towns， and from the middle reaches of the Yangtze to the upper and lower reaches. The company will protect the rivers ecology and endeavor to achieve signifi cant changes by 2020.