Beautiful Pictures of Walking｜Guangyang Island, Chongqing: Ecological Rebirth of “Hot Land for Development”

In January 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the symposium on promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt that promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt must consider the long-term interests of the Chinese nation, follow the path of ecological priority and green development, so that clear waters and green mountains will produce huge ecological, economic and social benefits, and keep the mother river alive forever.

Guangyang Island is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the Tongluo Gorge in the east of the main urban area of ​​Chongqing. It covers an area of ​​about 10 square kilometers during the dry season and about 6 square kilometers during the water storage period. It is the largest ecological island in the middle of the Yangtze River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In the past, over-development here had scarred the original ecosystem, destroyed native vegetation, and drastically reduced biodiversity. In August 2017, Chongqing stopped commercial development and positioned the entire island as the "Scenic Eye of the Yangtze River and Chongqing Ecological Island", officially starting a new journey of ecological protection and restoration.

During the restoration process, the local area adhered to the concept of "natural restoration as the mainstay and artificial restoration as a supplement". Through systematic projects such as water flow zone management, water system connection, and vegetation restoration, the ecological scene of "green mountains, beautiful waters, beautiful forests, good fields, clean lakes, and abundant grass" was recreated. Today's Guangyang Island, where rivers, vegetation, birds and the city complement each other, has become a successful example of biodiversity protection and ecological restoration in the Yangtze River Basin.

From a "hot land for development" to an "ecological treasure island", the changes in Guangyang Island are a vivid reflection of Chongqing's implementation of "joint efforts in large-scale conservation and no large-scale development". It not only provides a replicable practical sample for the Yangtze River's large-scale protection, but also vividly explains the vigorous vitality of the concept of "ecological priority, green development".