Going green

To add to the growth impetus and combat the air pollution that has beset local people for decades, Shaanxi has set out to develop the new economy.

To date, nearly 60 percent of buses in Xi'an are powered by electricity, while the three-year action plan "to win the battle for a blue sky" which was issued by the provincial government, proposed that all buses in cities on the Guanzhong Plain should be new energy vehicles by late next year.

Last year, more than 130,000 new energy automobiles were produced and sold in Shaanxi, which led the country in the promotion of such vehicles.

"Boasting an excellent foundation for the development of the new economy and a superior number of high-tech talents, Shaanxi possesses a relatively high level of technological innovation capacity," Zhang Xiaoguang, director of the Shaanxi Statistics Bureau, told Shaanxi Daily last year.

Moreover, the combined value of strategic emerging industries rose by 265 billion yuan last year, a rise of 10.4 percent year-on-year, accounting for 10.8 percent of Shaanxi's GDP.

Meanwhile, in the first half of this year, the added value of high-tech industries, including artificial intelligence and big data, has risen by 13.1 percent - far higher than the overall GDP growth rate of 5.4 percent, illustrating the strong growth momentum of Shaanxi's new economy.

Strenuous efforts to save energy and reduce consumption saw Shaanxi's GDP per unit of energy use fall by about 4.7 percent last year. Meanwhile, air quality in the province improved significantly, with levels of PM2.5 - fine particulate matter that can enter the bloodstream via the lungs - falling by 10.5 percent, and there were 4.3 more days with good air quality.

With the strict implementation of environmental pollution prevention and management measures, as well as the Grain for Green Project - an environmental restoration program aimed at recovering forests from farmland and solving a number of issues, such as soil erosion - the previously barren Loess Plateau now is covered in greenery, with the vegetation coverage rate in Yan'an rising to 80 percent from 46 percent in 2000.

A returnee to China from the United States, surnamed Fu, was perplexed by the beautiful scenery in Yan'an, the crucible of the Communist revolution.

He told Xinhua News Agency: "This is my first time in Yan'an. I always imagined it as a place with loess and sand blowing in the wind. It's just imagination, of course. With trees everywhere and the moist air, it almost feels like the southern part of China."