YULIN, Shaanxi -- President Xi Jinping has called for freeing the mind, carrying out reform and innovation, and making persistent efforts to usher in a new chapter of high-quality development in Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during a two-day inspection tour of Yulin city in Shaanxi starting Monday.

Xi urged fulfilling various tasks in COVID-19 prevention and control and economic and social development, coordinating development and security in a better way.

He also emphasized the need to better serve and integrate into the new development paradigm.

On Monday, Xi visited a chemical company under the China Energy Investment Corporation. He said the coal industry should follow a green and low-carbon path of development, and coal consumption needs to be transformed and upgraded.

The coal chemical industry, as a sector with huge potential and good prospects, must be transformed into a high-end, diversified and low-carbon industry, Xi said, adding that sci-tech innovation is the most pressing task and efforts must be accelerated to achieve breakthroughs in key and core technologies.

During his trip to the village of Gaoxigou, Xi chatted with villagers in the field, asking about their work, income, medical care, children's education and employment.

Hailing the village as a model of ecological conservation on the Loess Plateau, Xi highlighted the need to integrate ecological governance with the development of distinctive local businesses. He emphasized exploring a way to attain coordinated development between ecology and economy, and harmony between humans and nature.

Xi later visited the revolutionary site of Yangjiagou, where Mao Zedong and the Party's central authorities stayed for over four months between 1947 and 1948, commanding the War of Liberation and leading the land reform movement.

Xi stressed always upholding and improving the Party's leadership, upholding the basic tenets of Marxism and the principle of seeking truth from facts, and adapting Marxism to China's conditions.