But the river has been facing severe environmental challenges after years of exploitation.

Roughly 691 km of the river run through Chongqing, leading the city to concentrate on ecological restoration and protection and avoid large-scale development, especially after President Xi Jinping's inspection tour of the city in January 2016.

Xi had urged the municipality to become a "pleasant place with clear water and green mountains".

In order to restore water quality, Chongqing's environment authorities banned new chemical projects within 1 km of the major branches of the Yangtze and within 5 km of new industrial parks.

In the Changshou economic and technological area, a closed circuit television camera network monitors every vehicle and production area. Five sewage treatment plants, along with a main sewer pipeline measuring more than a 60 km, collect all wastewater, according to Zhao.

"We have built a five-level water pollution risk control system and online monitoring system to ensure no untreated industrial sewage flows into the Yangtze," he said.

In addition, the area's 24-hour all-weather emergency response center connects with the local police and fire departments as well as the medical emergency system and environmental protection hotline to give immediate notice if any accident occurs.

Thanks to its green development strategy, Changshou has achieved high-quality economic development with an 18 percent reduction in energy consumption per unit of GDP in the past two years, Zhao added.

In the future, Chongqing will try to become part of the pilot program for becoming a zero waste city, according to Xin Shijie, director of Chongqing ecology and environment bureau.