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Marshland city of Dafeng seeing fruit of its labor in creating green, sustainable future
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Last week I went on a press trip to Dafeng, a city in the north of neighboring Jiangsu Province, to see first-hand its achievements in reconciling growth with environmental protection.
The four-hour bus journey included crossing the 34-kilometer Sutong Yangtze River Highway Bridge linking Suzhou and Nantong, which opened in 2008.
As we crossed, we saw several tall smokestacks belching billows of whitish smoke into the air. The mass of smoke melted into the cloud overhead, creating a scene not wholly devoid of beauty.
It certainly seemed so to a four-year-old among our party.
“Now I know where all the clouds have come from,” the little girl murmured on seeing this sight. She had been restless for most of the trip, but somehow was moved by the billowing chimneys apparently creating clouds.
Jiangsu’s historic Suzhou has long been lauded as the Venice in the East, and one of the earthly paradises (the other being Hangzhou) — a land of fish and rice, or indeed milk and honey.
That is in contrast to Subei, technically those parts of Jiangsu north of the Yangtze, a land traditionally known for its harsh conditions, privations, and the hardiness of its people.
When reforms began in the 1980s, the entrepreneurial people in the fertile region of southern Jiangsu (Sunan) spearheaded efforts to create non-agricultural enterprises at village and township level, and their success was later extolled as the “Sunan Mode.” Today, this pioneering spirit may have lost some of its luster as people no longer perceive development separate from the cost.
‘Enclave of Shanghai’
In one sense, the towering smokestacks are an uneasy reminder of the legacy of decades of heady growth in this land once crossed and recrossed by numerous rivers. Inspired by this awareness, Dafeng, under the authority of Yancheng city, is now envisioning its future in a new light. Although also situated similarly near the sea, Dafeng does not evoke so many favorable associations as those southern areas.
Situated in Subei, its land salty and boggy, Dafeng has 112 kilometers of coastline and 1,000 square kilometers of marshland. This harsh geography explains in part why it is known as an enclave of Shanghai, for about 80,000 Shanghai zhishi qingnian — educated youths — lived and worked here from the 1950s to the 1970s.
These educated youths from cities were mostly of junior or senior middle school education level (thus eminently educated), sent to work in villages or farms. Most returned to their home cities from the late 1970s.
But their memories of rural life were instrumental in catalyzing the literary renaissance soon after the “cultural revolution” (1966-1976). And many of those returnees in Shanghai, now mostly retirees, may cherish the chance of paying another visit to a museum in Dafeng built especially for their collective memory, where are on display many items and scenes reminiscent of that period.
A year ago, a direct tour bus link between the two cities was launched.
While the soil of Dafeng is naturally salty, early last century a well-known entrepreneur named Zhang Jian (1853-1926) pioneered efforts to remove salinity using technology from the Netherlands.
Thus unlike other areas of China where the area of farmland is diminishing, here it is growing, thanks partly to the reclamation effort. Annually over 50,000 mu (3,300 hectares) of new farmland is added to its area.
‘Flower sea’
Dafeng’s vision for a sustainable future has inspired the city to see eco-tourism as a pillar of future growth.
In Hengbei, one of its model villages, there is a park where visitors can admire pear blossom at this season. In time these blossoms will produce a variety of pear branded as a local specialty. Other fruit grown there includes persimmons and strawberries, among others.
And another enticing-sounding attraction is a 15,000-sqm “flower sea”, complete with entertainment, catering, hospitality and, of course, flowers.
To the general populace, Dafeng is better known as the adopted home of Pere David’s deer — known in Chinese as milu, or sibuxiang (the latter name meaning “the four unlikes”). This species was once extensively distributed in China, but had become virtually extinct around 1900, the only surviving herd kept in a royal garden in Beijing.
When the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China in 1900 to suppress the Boxer Rebellion, the remaining deer were either killed or taken to Europe.
However, dozens of the deer were reintroduced to a reserve in Dafeng in the 1980s, and now its population has grown to more than 1,000.
The city has already been selected as a national ecological city and nominated for its environmental protection.
These efforts and honors are valuable, for after decades of breathtaking growth, many have come to cherish the blissfulness of simply having a breath of fresh air or a respite — however transient — from the hustle and bustle that has come to characterize urban living.
So while crossing the bridge astride the mighty Yangtze River, in full view of those majestic smokestacks, I might not be the only one who was reminded for a moment of the lush farmland, small stone bridges, and boats that have already been suppressed by modernity.
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