The millennium Silk Road spans the past and present.
On April 19, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping went to Guangxi for an investigation, and his first stop was Beihai City. The day before, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation would be held in Beijing in May.
From April 19 to 21, 2017, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited Guangxi. This is the afternoon of April 19, when Xi Jinping visited the boutique cultural relics exhibition of the Maritime Silk Road at the Hepu Han Dynasty Cultural Museum in Beihai. Photographed by Xie Huanchi, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency
Guangxi is an important gateway to the intersection and docking of the "Belt and Road". Hepu, under the jurisdiction of Beihai, was the early departure port of the ancient maritime Silk Road, and became an important gateway for trade exchanges between China and foreign countries more than 2000 years ago.
As time goes by, what changes have taken place in the ancient Silk Road port in the past five years?
Hepu Han Dynasty Cultural Museum, Tieshangang Public Wharf, Golden Bay Mangrove Ecological Reserve... For several days, the reporter of People's Daily Online has followed the footsteps of General Secretary Xi Jinping in the North Sea to make a return visit, feel the vitality facing the sea on the spot, and touch the strong pulse of the sea map.
Let cultural relics speak, let history speak, let culture speak
——Thousands of years of Haisi culture "live"
The pot is yellow and white with green glaze, round lips and thin necks, and elegant posture. When you enter the "Blue Sea Silk Road" exhibition hall of the Hepu Han Dynasty Culture Museum, the first thing you see is a Persian pot.
Persian pottery pot on display in Hepu Han Dynasty Culture Museum. Photographed by Zhu Xiaoling, reporter of People's Daily Online
This cultural relic unearthed in 2008 is the "treasure of the town hall" of Hepu Han Dynasty Cultural Museum. As the earliest Persian pottery pot unearthed in China so far, it is also one of the important physical evidence to confirm the maritime Silk Road in the Han Dynasty.
Five years ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping stopped in front of this Persian pottery pot. "When I finished explaining the history of Persian pottery pots and prepared to guide the General Secretary to see the next cultural relic, I found that he was still watching carefully," recalled Lian Shiming, the museum director.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during the inspection that "the road to the sea is an important way for a country to develop. The cultural relics displayed here around the ancient Maritime Silk Road are history and culture. Let cultural relics speak, let history speak, and let culture speak."
How to let the sleeping history speak?
Beihai should keep in mind the entrustment of General Secretary Xi Jinping, take cultural construction as a soul building project, and make overall plans for protection, inheritance and utilization of the article: strengthen top-level design, formulate the Action Plan for Strengthening the Protection and Utilization of Cultural Heritage of the Beihai Maritime Silk Road; bring historical and cultural protection into the track of rule of law, and issue and implement the Regulations on the Protection of Hepu Han Tombs in Beihai City And other laws and regulations; enhance the characteristics of Hepu Han Dynasty Cultural Museum, cooperate with Shaanxi Institute of Cultural Relics Protection in the protection and restoration of cultural relics; promote the joint application of the "Maritime Silk Road" historical sites for world cultural heritage
"Now, Hepu Han Dynasty Culture Museum has become the only museum in China with the history of the Han Dynasty Maritime Silk Road as its theme. Over the past five years, it has received more than 1 million visitors." Lian Shiming is full of pride in his words.
The Silk Road is long and lasting for thousands of years. If you are not satisfied with just looking at cultural relics, you can also take a "journey through" by driving 20 minutes from the Hepu Han Dynasty Cultural Museum. In Hepu Haisi First Harbor Scenic Spot, the panoramic interactive immersive experience with a sense of science and technology makes you feel as if you were at the departure port of the Maritime Silk Road more than 2000 years ago.
At nightfall, the lights of Lianzhou Bay are on, officials, traders and fishermen in Han suits come and go, and businessmen from different countries dress up in foreign clothes come and go... The scenic spot vividly represents the grand trade scene of merchants gathering and boat transportation.
Close up drama is staged in the Haisi First Harbor Scenic Area. Photographed by Zhu Xiaoling, reporter of People's Daily Online
"It gives me a thousand years of experience here. I didn't expect the scenic spot to have such a high degree of restoration to the Silk Road Ancient Port. I can even talk to the 'ancients'." Mr. Zhang, a tourist from Hainan Province, was full of praise.
The integration of culture and tourism makes "poetry and distance" within reach. Li Li, mayor of Beihai, revealed that Beihai will continue to promote "tourism+culture" and build a number of historical and cultural scenic spots relying on cultural relics of the Maritime Silk Road and Beihai Old City.
If you want to be rich, build a port first
——Write a New Chapter of the Maritime Silk Road in the New Century
"We often say that if we want to be rich, we should build roads first, and if we want to be rich in coastal areas, we should also build ports first." Five years ago, when inspecting the public terminal of Tieshan Port, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that Tieshan Port has regional advantages and broad development prospects, and will be an important support for the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone in the future. It is necessary to build a good Beibu Gulf port and build a good coastal economy.
The road to the sea is suddenly clear.
Compared with 2017, the cargo throughput in 2021 will increase from 23.3606 million tons to 33.3018 million tons, and the container throughput will increase from 238800 TEUs to 613800 TEUs... In the past five years, the public code of Tieshan Port has developed rapidly and steadily.
Busy Tieshangang public wharf. Photographed by Qin Xin of People's Daily Online
The public wharf of Tieshangang in early summer is booming. Huge cranes are busy working, and large trucks shuttle back and forth. At present, the Tieshangang operation area has six 150000 ton berths, with a cargo throughput of 34.3 million tons.
"In recent years, we have done many things that we have wanted to do for many years but failed to do. When the General Secretary inspected, this place was still a sandy land." Mo Qiyu, the general manager of Beibu Gulf Port Beihai Port Dock Co., Ltd., pointed to the distance and said.
The once sandy land has now become a large storage yard behind the No.5-6 berths in the Tieshangang operation area. This storage yard will be completed and put into use in December 2019, covering an area of 380000 square meters, and can accommodate 8346 containers at one time.
With the rapid development of big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, modern ports are increasingly competitive. In order to win the initiative in the competition, it is urgent to build a technology intensive and knowledge intensive smart port.
On June 28, 2021, at the site of No. 6 berth in Tieshangang operation area, a large truck of Dongfeng Liuqi loaded with 5G+unmanned truck collection system will automatically and accurately reach the target operation area without driver driving after receiving the command from the dispatching system. After completing container loading and unloading and transportation, independently complete starting turning, acceleration and deceleration, parking and other actions.
"This is the first 5G+unmanned container truck operation port project in Guangxi," said Wu Huaqiang, deputy director of the management committee of Tieshangang (Coastal) Industrial Zone. The whole operation process is transmitted back to the control room via 5G network in the form of video, realizing unmanned container transportation, visualized operation process, intelligent and information-based port production.
Sun Paper production line. Photographed by Qin Xin of People's Daily Online
Relying on the port advantages, Beihai continues to attract industrial clusters, and the industrial layout continues to improve: ten billion yuan projects such as Xinyi Glass and Sun Paper have taken root; six industrial clusters, including green chemicals, electronic information, high-end glass and photovoltaic materials, new materials and high-end equipment manufacturing, high-end paper making, and energy, have begun to take shape.
Cai Jinjun, secretary of the Beihai Municipal Party Committee, said that Beihai insists on guiding high-quality economic and social development with Xianghai economy. In the past five years, the city's marine economy has achieved rapid development, with the marine economy accounting for 50% of GDP. Beihai is making great strides towards the goal of building a demonstration city for marine economic development.
Respect science and implement responsibility
——Build well the marine biodiversity wetland ecological area
In the Beihai Sea in May, the greenery turns into waves.
The lush mangroves stretch for several miles, the nearby mudfish and fiddler crabs play hide and seek in the mudflats, and the distant egrets dance in groups... Walking in the Golden Bay Mangrove Ecological Reserve, it is like being in a beautiful ecological picture.
Crowds of egrets fly in mangrove wetlands. Photographed by Mao Jiaping
The mangrove forest is not only a beautiful scenic line, but also a "green great wall" between land and sea. It plays an important role in protecting biodiversity, resisting marine natural disasters, and improving the coastal ecological environment.
Five years ago, when General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the Golden Bay Mangrove Ecological Reserve, Peng Zaiqing, then the deputy director of the Beihai Municipal Bureau of Oceanography, served as the interpreter. Peng Zaiqing recalled the scene at that time with great emotion. "The General Secretary told us that we must respect science, implement our responsibilities and protect mangroves."
The earnest exhortation continued to send surging green echoes.
Since 2017, Beihai has successively issued regulations on mangrove protection and management, patrol and inspection system, and reporting system on acts of destroying mangrove resources, and has carried out in-depth scientific research cooperation with the Fourth Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Guangxi Mangrove Research Center, etc. In the past five years, the area of mangroves in Beihai has increased by 127.11 hectares. The area of mangrove resources in the city has reached 4210.99 hectares, accounting for 45.1% of the total area of mangroves in Guangxi, ranking first in Guangxi.
At the same time, the biodiversity of Beihai wetland is becoming more and more abundant. The species of benthos in coastal mudflats increased from 66 before 2017 to 153, and rare marine animals such as Chinese horseshoe crab and green sea turtle were found at the estuary.
On April 9 of this year, the staff of Guangxi Marine Environment Monitoring Center Station collected the white limbopod manatee in the intertidal zone of Beihai mangrove, which is the first time that Guangxi recorded this species. "The mangrove area is very rich in biodiversity, and the white limbopod manatee is one of them, and the mangrove is their natural shelter," said Liu Mengling, senior engineer of Guangxi Marine Environment Monitoring Center Station.
The protection of mangroves and the construction of marine biodiversity wetland ecological areas are a vivid epitome of Beihai's adherence to the "ecological city".
Overlooking Fengjiajiang Coastal National Wetland Park. Courtesy of Publicity Department of Beihai Municipal Party Committee
A good ecological environment is the most inclusive livelihood. After dinner, many Beihai citizens like to take a walk in Fengjiajiang Binhai National Wetland Park. The water is clear and the bank is green, and the eyes are fresh. Who would have thought that this beautiful wetland park was a "pollution receiving river" before.
From 2018 to 2021, Beihai invested a total of 2.5 billion yuan to carry out ecological restoration of Fengjiajiang Wetland based on the implementation of integrated water pollution management of "source control and sewage interception - endogenous treatment - renewable water resources utilization - deep purification of ponds and wetlands" and in combination with the characteristics of coastal composite wetland ecosystem.
The tide has not set for a thousand years, and the wind is blowing again.
From the departure port of the ancient Maritime Silk Road more than 2000 years ago to the first batch of coastal open cities in China in 1984, and then to the important gateway city of the "Belt and Road", the ocean has always been the "blue engine" for the development of the North Sea.
Following the direction of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Beihai is forging ahead on a new journey to become stronger in the sea. Today's ancient port on the Silk Road has become one of the most competitive ports. (Zhu Xiaoling, Zhang Fang, Qin Xin)
