Streaming down the Yangtze: Zunyi and its clean water construction

A special reporters' team on a journey down the Yangtze River has arrived at Zunyi, Guizhou Province.

The team consists of over 120 reporters from China's major media outlets, and is monitoring the changes that have been made along the Yangtze, the longest river in China.

Zunyi is the second largest city of Guizhou, and also an important area along the basin of the Yangtze.

Zunyi is the second largest city of Guizhou, and also an important area along the basin of the Yangtze. [Photo: baidu]

For that end,  CRI host Shane Bigham had a conversation with our reporter Yang Guang who is on the trip.

1. First of all, can you tell us more about the city of Zunyi and why it is crucial to the ecosystem of the Yangtze River.

Zunyi is known as the location where Chairman Mao Zedong was first elected to the leadership of the Communist Party of China at the famous Zunyi Conference in 1935. Now Chinese tourists often come to the city to take photographs in the meeting hall where this historic election took place. Yesterday morning our team also visited this tourism spot and I would say this place is very popular; tourists are constantly going in that the resort had to limit the number of visitors over a certain period of time.

In terms of Zunyi's relevance with Yangtze River, well there are two large tributaries of Yangtze that flows across Zunyi before they eventually flow into the Mother River. One is Wujiang River, the largest southern tributary of Yangtze and Chichi River, another major tributary of upper Yangtze River. The ecology of these two rivers very much impacts the condition of upstream Yangtze. If there is a pollution in either waters, Yangtze could be directly affected.

Therefore Zunyi means a lot to the ecological protection of Yangtze.

2. The Chinese central government has named eco-construction as a priority for development along the Yangtze River. Based on the trip so far, how would you evaluate the job Zunyi has done regarding this goal?

Yesterday we only visited Wujiang River and the water there is visually very clean. From the shore, I could clearly see the bottom of the river at some shallow parts. Both as large water distribution bodies connected to Yangzte, Wujiang River is cleaner than Dianchi Lake of Yunnan Province. The statistics is baking me up. The water in Dianchi is rated grade five, while Wujaing water is rated grade four, some parts even reach grade two, which means the water is drinkable. That is quite impressive.

Local officials told me that along the Wujiang River there are no industrial plants, which means there is no major pollutant flowing into the river. Meantime mass fishing activities are also prohibited along the river. The move has saved many fish species in Wujiang.

And also in the city, some residents regularly swim in the river of the downtown Zunyi. That may do a lot of talk. 

We planned to remain in Zunyi for three days. Tomorrow we will visit Chishui River and the distillery of Maotai, a famous Chinese alcohol brand and see how it is there in terms of water pollution control.