A Seaside City Shining by the South China Sea

                 -Zhanjiang mayor Ruan Risheng talks about city development

The city of Zhanjiang lies at the southernmost place of Mainland China and the southwestern part of Guangdong. It is located in the Leizhou Peninsula, one of three peninsulas in China. As a famous ecological bay city, Zhanjiang is called “a pearl of the South China Sea”. It has not only the longest coastline among all the Chinese cities, but also enjoys a long history – Kou Zhun, Su Shi, Qin Guan and other ancient celebrities paid visits to this city; and Chen Bin, a famous upright officer in ancient China, Lin Zhaotang, the only Number One Scholar in West Guangdong and Zhang Yan, a famous general during the Anti-Japanese War impressed a glorious seal into Zhanjiang.

In 1960, former Chinese president Deng Xiaoping visited Zhanjiang and thought highly of this city by comparing it to Qingdao, Shandong. In 1984, Zhanjiang was listed as one of the 14 coastal cities open to the outside. In the 21st century, this city is greeted by a new opportunity. Based on the indication of “putting multiple efforts in city development and trying to rise against negative situation” made by Guangdong party secretary Wang Yang, Zhanjiang set up the goal of being the leading power in West Guangdong’s development and implemented the strategy of “establishing city with industry, developing city with port and building city with ecology”. The mission to realizing this goal is shouldered by the other leaders of this city.

Deep-water Port with Obvious Advantages

Ruan Rishen, mayor of Zhanjiang, has been working in this city for 40 years. Therefore, when he was appointed mayor of Zhanjiang in 2008, he had a sound affection for Zhanjiang as well as comprehensive understanding of it. In his opinion, it is reasonable for Zhanjiang to establish industry, especially port industry as the pillar of economic development. First of all, Zhanjiang’s biggest advantage lies in its deep-water port. Zhanjiang Port is the first modern port designed and developed by China. It is the major gateway to ocean in Southwest China and an important port with the shortest marine distance between China and Southeast Asia, West Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania. It is also the only port with the throughput volume of 100 million tons in China’s southwestern area

“Zhanjiang is the biggest natural deep-water port in West Guangdong and the Pan Beibu Gulf Area. It is also one of the 12 major pivotal ports in China. Therefore, we plan to build Zhanjiang into a regional international shipping scenter,” says Ruan Risheng.

Secondly, Zhanjiang has developed transportation system. It is the only prefecture-level city in Guangdong having five transportation ways (shipping, railway, expressway, aviation and pipeline). According to Ruan Risheng, a great transportation pattern is being formed in Zhanjiang, spreading to the Pearl River Delta and undertaking the industrial transfer in and out of China.

Thirdly, Zhanjiang, as a tropical city, has beautiful natural scene and abundant natural resources. The mangrove in Zhanjiang takes one third of the whole country. It has also the largest and best reserved coral reef. Meanwhile, Zhanjiang is famous for its sisal, fruits, pearls and seafood.

Fast Development with Precise Positioning

During his 40 years in Zhanjiang, Ruan Risheng witnessed Zhanjiang’s development from a destitute are to one of the Top 100 cities in China. When present in an interview program in southcn.com in January 2010, Ruan Risheng said that the year of 2009 is most difficult year for Zhanjiang in the new century. But the government took a series of measures to boost the economic development and people’s livelihood improvement. In 2009, Zhanjiang’s GDP reached 115.62 billion yuan (USD 17.33 billion), up 10.6% – higher than the average level of Guangdong. The GDP per capita was 16.6 thousand yuan (USD 2.49 thousand), up 9.3%.

With the establishment of some steel and petrol projects, a new period of development for Zhanjiang has begun. Zhanjiang government also gained new knowledge of this city’s positioning. According to Ruan Risheng, Zhanjiang government has already worked out three plans to boost the steel industry, ecological development pattern and urban-rural development. Borrowing the experience of other seaside cities, Zhanjiang is committing itself to becoming a beautiful bay city.

Ruan Risheng said in June: “Presently there are three big projects in Zhanjiang majored in oil chemistry, steel and paper pulp. Three industry clusters will be formed based on the three projects in the future. In 12th Five-Year Plan Period (2011-2015), Zhanjiang will see the establishment of 82 projects with the total investment of 300 billion yuan (USD 43.9 billion). By the end of 2015, the GDP of Zhanjiang will be higher than 300 billion yuan, more than twice of today’s level.”

These measures conform to the strategy of “establishing city with industry and developing city with port”. But are the projects harmful to the environment and ecology. For this, Ruan Risheng said: “Environment issues are our first concerns. We will not sacrifice environment for development. No waste water will be discharged in steel and oil chemistry base which is friendly to ecology, environment and resources. Putting the two projects together is based on the theory that the waste materials of the projects can be re-used by each other. It is the first case in China and set up an example in the country. With the comprehensive utilization of waste materials and zero waste water discharging earned Zhanjiang a praise from the Chinese central government. In addition, the citizens know our plan and 99.7% of them support it.”

A large sum of money is needed to back up these big projects. Ruan Risheng said that the 300-billion-yuan investment in the next five years entails many financial institutions’ support. “Zhanjiang government takes the recruitment of financial institution as one of the main tasks. We have taken measures to get domestic banks, foreign banks and the other financial institutions established in Zhanjiang.”

Meanwhile, Ruan Risheng stressed that the government would try to persuade some big companies to establish local financial companies in Zhanjiang and put great efforts in turning Zhanjiang into the financial center in West Guangdong.

When developing the manufacturing, Zhanjiang also commits itself to developing tourism and modern service with its unparalleled natural beauty. According to the statistics, more than 11.51 million tourist visited Zhanjiang in 2009, 29.1% larger than a year before. The total tourism income reached 5.33 billion yuan (USD 798.7 million). The yoy increase was 13.2%, higher than the growth of GDP, first industry and second industry. In the Zhanjiang Tourism Working Conference held this June, Ruan Risheng put forward the requirement of building a seaside ecological tourism brand featuring Zhanjiang’s characteristics and charm. Eight aspects are needed for improvement. They are planning, integration of resources, systematic innovation, supporting services, infrastructure construction, product development, standard formulation and spread, publicity and related training. These measures all serve the goal of building Zhanjiang into a place of interest for domestic and foreign visitors.

Ruan Risheng is very confident in Zhanjiang’s future. He said: “Zhanjiang is a charming young city and its appeal will grow stronger in the future. The 14 Guangdong Provincial Olympic Games will be held in Zhanjiang in 2014. We plan to make use of this opportunity to accelerate our economic development and urban construction. It is expected that Zhanjiang will develop into an emerging port city with tropical bay features and turn into a new development pole for Guangdong,”

Care for People’s Livelihood for Overall Development

People’s livelihood is as important as economic development for a city. With his forty years’ working experience in Zhanjiang, Ruan Risheng also knows well about people’s livelihood there and devotes himself to improving it.

Zhanjiang established a good example for China in the medical reform. From September 2007, Zhanjiang government began to cooperate with professional health insurance companies in basic medical insurance and health management. Now the service network has covered civil servants, town people and farmers. In July 2010, Ruan Risheng visited a sub-district office to make a review of the medical reform and required continuous innovation to improve the medical insurance of Zhanjiang to a new level. Ruan Risheng stressed: “Urban-rural medical reform should be based on the combination with social insurance and health insurance. The role of health department in the medical reform system should be defined and the commercial insurance should be fully used. The supervision system needs improvement and corruption should be prevented.”

At the end of July 2010, Ruan Risheng made a review of Zhanjiang’s traffic condition. The streets infested with unlicensed autos and unapproved taxis made him decide to put an end to Zhanjiang’s chaotic traffic condition. On September 25, the reform Zhanjiang’s traffic was officially started. More than one thousand traffic policemen went to the different streets of Zhanjiang to deal with traffic havoc. Ruan Risheng also came to the scene. After listening to the suggestions from citizens, he said: “People’s city should be built and managed by people. Our goal is to make everyone in Zhanjiang enjoy free, safe and comfortable traffic. So we hope everyone could contribute to this move.”

In addition, increasing the investment in education, putting more efforts in helping the low-income earners get rid of poverty and so on are the measures Ruan Risheng and Zhanjiang government took to improve people’s livelihood in Zhanjiang. These measures, as well the ones for economic development, laid a solid foundation for Zhanjiang’s economic and social development and the goal of becoming the core city of West Guangdong.