In June 2003, Xi Jinping, thensecretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), initiated a provincewide, green-rural-revival program to improve the eco-environment of villages and rural residents' quality of life in East China's Zhejiang Province. During an inspection tour of Yucun, a village in Anji, a city in Zhejiang, in August 2005, Xi spoke highly of the village's decision to pursue green development, and he put forward the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." 

For 20 years, the program has created thousands of beautiful villages, and it has fundamentally changed the face of the province's countryside. Zhejiang was recognized with a Champions of the Earth Award, the UN's highest environmental honor, in 2018. 

Xi, now Chinese President and General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has demanded solid efforts to spread the experience of Zhejiang in building a beautiful countryside, with a pleasant living environment, to increase the sense of gain and happiness of all rural residents. 

The program has shown the world the Chinese path to modernization is a win-win proposition for economic development and environmental protection. China will continue to make solid progress in building a livable, beautiful China, and it will make greater contributions to boosting global ecological civilization.

Photos from VCG  

(Women of China English Monthly September 2023)