Governor Hu Heping: Seven Letters Constituting ＂Shaanxi＂ Represent Different Features of Shaanxi

Vice Party Chief and Governor Hu Heping delivered  keynote speech.

This morning, the global presentation – “An Open China: Shaanxi Engaging the World” – was held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited envoys from foreign embassies of more than 100 countries in China and representatives of international organizations, 100 domestic and foreign news media and representatives from Global Top 500 enterprises and celebrities from Shaanxi cultural field to present the presentation. Wang Yi, minister of Foreign Affairs, and Provincial Party Chief Lou Qinjian and director of the Standing Committee of the National People' s Congress, attended the conference and addressed speeches. Hu Heping, vice secretary of Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee and governor, addressed a themed promotion speech.

In his promotion speech, Hu Heping said, seven letters consisting of "Shaanxi" represented outstanding features of Shaanxi.

Seven letters in "Shaanxi" represents different features of Shaanxi.

S is Spectacular, representing Shaanxi's magnificent natural landscape. As the geometric center in the territory of China and with an area of 205,600 km2, Shaanxi crosses two river basins, i.e., Yangtze River and Yellow River, and three different climate zones, that is, the mid temperate zone, the warm temperate zone and the subtropical zone, therefore, three regions are formed, that is, North Shaanxi, Guanzhong and South Shaanxi. Qinling, lying cross China and stretching more than 1600 km, is the boundary of South China and North China.

Special geographical environment, has produced a fantastic colorful image in Shaanxi, integrating water town in southern Yangtze river, fertile plain and plateau. In North Shaanxi, red rock in Hongshi Gorge stands opposite each other, forming a beautiful scene; Hongjiannao Lake is crystal-clear, like a pearl in the desert; and Hukou Fall is warm in summers and icy in winters, forming the tremendous momentum. In Guanzhong region, as one of the five popular mountains in China, Huashan Mountain is colorful and flourishing throughout a year and known for its steep; as a main peak of Qinling, Taibai Mountain is high and pretty, with relics from the quaternary glacier; and Guanshan Pasture is luxuriantly green, and brings out the best in each other with mountain streams. South Shaanxi lies between Qinling Mountain and Bashan Mountain, a landscape of lakes and mountains forms a splendorous contrast, with canyons and Karst caves dotted, showing a lasting appeal of beauty.

In order to protect the colorful and pleasant natural environment, Shaanxi has taken the strictest pollution control measures, and sticks to planting trees in North Shaanxi for a decade, and therefore, the green area stretches 400km to the north. Now, the grass and forest coverage in Shaanxi has exceeded 70% and the beautiful scenery of green mountains and water and blue sky is widespread.

H is Historic, representing Shaanxi's long history and profound culture. In the long history of the Chinese civilization heritage, Shaanxi plays an extremely important role. Yellow Emperor, the humane primogenitor of China, started the Chinese civilization here 5,000 years ago and his great-great-grandson, Hou Ji created splendid farming culture here and therefore was called the ancestor of Chinese agriculture. Lao Tzu, an ancient philosopher, once came to Shaanxi to teach the Taoism and achieved the peak in philosophy in ancient China. Zhang Qian of West Han Dynasty started from Chang'an, the ancient capital, to visit the Western Regions and opened the Silk Road throughout Europe and Asia for more than 2,100 years. 13 dynasties, including Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang, once established their capitals in Shaanxi and left more than 50,000 sites of immovable precious relics and more than 1 million pieces of cultural relics in the collection of cultural institution, in over 1,100 years of existence. And the completeness, richness and supremacy of those relics are rare in the world. Among those relics, Terra-Cotta Warriors, known as the 8th Wonder of the world, is a typical representative. And Famen Temple in Baoji, a temple with sarira of Gautama Buddha, and Xi'an City Wall, best preserved in the world so far, have also attracted the world. Tang Dynasty, lasting 289 years, was a golden age for flourishing of poetry in China. Romantic and heroic Li Bai and Du Fu, caring for the fate of his nation, together with over 2,300 talent poets, left about 50,000 excellent poems, contributing to the world of literary treasure.

As is known to all, Shaanxi is a sacred place of the Chinese revolution. The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party once worked in Yan'an for 13 years, leading the people of the whole country to realize the national independence and the prosperity and strength. Yan'an now preserves more than 2,000 sites of precious cultural relics and is also known as the spiritual home of the Chinese communists.

Shaanxi's folk culture is as colorful and diverse as the modern culture: hundreds of cultural projects, including North Shaanxi folk songs, Ansai waist drum, ballad in Huayin “Laoqiang Opera” and Fengxiang paper cutting and clay sculpture, are listed in the nonmaterial cultural heritage list; literature, art, music, calligraphy and other fields constantly emerge excellent works with artistic appeal and influence and a batch of featured cultural brands are formed, such as Literature with Shaanxi features, Chang'an school of painting and Shaanxi plays.

Shaanxi's culture is China's treasure and also common wealth of the mankind. In order to make people better taste and appreciate, we create a brand new tourism experience through reform and innovation, integrating site protection, folk customs, leisure and food as a whole. In recent five years, domestic and foreign tourists to Shaanxi for sightseeing have reached 1.414 billion, equivalent to one fifth of the world's population. More and more foreign friends begin to understand China, via travelling in Shaanxi.

 A is abundant, representing rich resources in Shaanxi. Shaanxi is a province full of resources: there are 138 kinds of minerals discovered, with a potential economic value of about RMB 4200 billion Yuan, exceeding one third of the total amount in China. Among them, the proved reserves of coal and petroleum are 167.2 billion tons and 838 million tons respectively; prognostic reserves of natural are about 3350 billion m³; and output of coal, petroleum and gas all ranks the top three in China. Therefore, Shaanxi become an important energy base for projects of West-East natural gas transmission, West-East power transmission and West-East coal transmission. Just now, I introduce the beautiful scenery in North Shaanxi, where there is a city called Yulin. There are 6.4 tons of coal, 130 m³ of natural gas and 130 tons of salt under average per square meter of the City. And now, the nation-level energy-chemical industry base is under construction and four lines for transmission of natural gas to North China are completed.

The Guanzhong Plain is vast with fertile soil and an ideal area for development of modern city and industrial layout. Qinling is known as the natural biological gene pool, with more than 3,300 kinds of wild spermatophyte, taking up 10% of that in China. Nearly a hundred endangered species, such as the giant panda, golden monkey, crested ibis and takin, lives and breeds here and expands. Hanjiang River and Danjiang River in South Shaanxi not only can meet the need of local water supply, but also provide 70% of water yield in the middle route of the south-to-north water transfer project.  Some water you have is from Shaanxi.

 Another letter "A" represents Shaanxi's unfailing innovation vigor. The science and technology is the strongest motive force to drive the development. Each scientific and technical revolution deeply changes the world development pattern. Shaanxi's scientific and technological power takes a leading position in China. There are 96 colleges and universities, more than 1,000 scientific research institutions, 92 national and provincial key laboratories, with the 1.083 million students enrollment and the 1.1 million professionals. Last year, Shaanxi technological turnover exceeded RMB 72 billion Yuan, and the patent authorization quantity is 33.4 thousand. A batch of advanced scientific payoffs are used for industrial upgrading, environmental optimization, and urban construction to inject a strong driving force for development. Shaanxi has powerful technology innovation system in energy and chemical industry, advanced equipment manufacturing. Sophisticated industries projects including large cargo plane, 3D printing and unmanned aerial vehicle have achieved the significant development. The self-developed ultra-clean discharging technique makes the coal-fired power plant discharge higher than discharging standard of natural gas. Currently, we plan to develop a new round of technological revolution, launch the cutting-edge R&D of grapheme, quantum communication, the 5th generation mobile communication and spin magnetic storage. We believe we can achieve the breakthrough and make more contribution to China, even world's development.

N represents for "Nice", showing the Shaanxi people's harmonious living. There are 37.93 million people living in 10 cities, 1 demonstration area and 107 counties. They enjoy the comfortable life. Not only there is hospitable environment, but also there are more modern and intelligent urban services as well as the more complete and perfect rural facility due to the new-type urbanization development. They enjoy the easeful life. Shaanxi has insisted on the implementation of fiscal policy used for people's livelihood by adding "two-80%" of financial resources and fiscal expenditure, established the high- standard and widely covered security system on the employment, social security, health care, education and housing to make all fully enjoy the development achievements. They enjoy convenient life. Shaanxi's expressway traffic mileage has exceeded 5,000km; the length of railroad lines in service has reached 4,900km; the high-speed railway leading to adjacent provincial capital forms an "one-day life circle"; the international flight between Xi'an and international cities including Moscow, Seattle, Tokyo and that in Helsinki has been increased to 36. It is highly likely to go on a trip at any time. They enjoy harmonious life. Each nationality in Shaanxi is closely associated with each other to pay mutual respect and concentrate on Shaanxi spirit including "patriotism and faithfulness, diligence and plainness, generosity and tolerance, esteeming virtue and valuing etiquette, hardworking and progression".

X is a special word, representing a wonderful prospect of Shaanxi's future development. It benefits from the policy support of "reform and opening-up policy", "west development" and "Belt and Road"; under the joint effort of Shaanxi people, Shaanxi economy and society maintains the rapid development for over 10 years. In the past 5 years, we have undergone the global heavy downturn pressure, but still maintained the economic growth of annual average 11.1%. The economic aggregate in 2016 reached RMB1.82 trillion Yuan, standing at a starting point of new history.

Industry is the support of economic development and the prospect of Shaanxi three industries development is very extensive. When it comes to industrial field, on one hand, the energy of chemical industry constantly marches toward the high-end direction. Many projects with energy in deep conversion with the investment more than tens of billions of yuan have been put into operation and form a whole industrial chain with high extra value. On the other hand, the emerging industries, including new energy automobile, electronic information, aviation, biological medicine and new material, grow rapidly. Many of their products have been at the leading position. When it comes to the agricultural field, we have established more than 2,300 modern agricultural parks; the food production has gained the harvest for 12 consecutives years; the fruits output ranked the country's leading level and one of eight apples in the world produced by Shaanxi. When it comes to the service field, the most vigorous e-commerce turnover maintains the speed growth above 40%; the income of tourist industry has exceeded RMB300 billion yuan; the manufacturing-related service industry marches toward the high end of value chain; the daily-life-related service industry is converted to the elaborated and high quality.

From this year, Shaanxi enters the planning period of 13th Five Year Plan, and our goal: up to 2020, the gross value of production in Shaanxi shall reach RMB 3 trillion Yuan and the average per capita income shall exceed US$10 thousand dollars; the basic public service achieves the equalization; the living standard and quality of people shall be further enhanced. We firmly believe that under the leadership of central government, only if we stick to the new development philosophy of "innovation, coordination, openness, green and sharing", accelerate the release of advantages in the culture, resources, technology, talent and location, we can grasp the direction of future development in such complicated macroeconomic environment to make Shaanxi become a more rich, harmonious and beautiful place and make the excellent expectation of Shaanxi people come true.

The last letter "I" is "International", representing the openness of Shaanxi engaging the world. We all know that under the overall background of economic globalization, Shaanxi’s development can’t do without exchange and cooperation with the world. As the starting point of Silk Road, Shaanxi is the window for China to contact with the world since the ancient time. Over 1,300 years ago, Chang'an during the flourishing period of Tang Dynasty includes 100 thousand foreigners among 1 million people. As the continuous improvement of transportation facilities and deep implementation of "Belt and Road" are carried out in recent years, Shaanxi stands at the leading position of opening to the outside world. At present, Shaanxi has established economy and trade relation with over 190 countries and regions. There are 112 global 500 companies registered in Shaanxi. The early engineering of Samsung Electronics Project with the total investment of RMB 30 billion Yuan has been constructed and put into operation. Xi'an airport has approved with 72-hour Transit Without Visa. The passenger throughput in Xianyang International Airport in Xi’an reaches 33 million person-time. There are 5 special areas supervised by customs. As the Class-A provisional port, all coastal ports are gathered here and lead to Central Asia and Europe. "Chang'an" international freight train has realized the normal operation of arrival and departure. Xinzhu Station in Xi'an has become the largest logistics distribution center along the "Belt and Road".

In recent years, more and more economic and trade activities and other activities in foreign affairs are held in Shaanxi. Last year, the High-level Customs Forum along the “Belt and Road”, Tourism Ministerial Meeting of Countries along the “Belt and Road” and The Economic and Trade Ministers’ Meeting of SCO Member States have been successfully held; President Xi Jinping received Prime Minister of India Narenda Modi, attracting international attention. This year, more than 100 thousand foreign businessman from 87 countries and regions participated in 2016 Silk Road International Exposition and the 20th Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East & West China; not long ago, Women-20 Meeting and G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting closed successfully in Xi'an.

More and more countries enhance the exchange and cooperation with Shaanxi. Thailand together with South Korea and Cambodia successively established their own Consulate General in Xi’an. Under the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we are accelerating the consulate area in Xi'an. Hope envoys from foreign embassies actively promote the consulate setup in Shaanxi and further enhance the communication between both sides.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

After my introduction, all of you must have a deep understanding on "Shaanxi". However, in terms of such an old & modern and green & fashionable province, the presentation for 4 hours is not long enough to show all its charm. We sincerely hope all of you can come to Shaanxi. You can relax while seeing the beautiful scenery of hills and water, experience the history under the quiet city wall and enjoy the simplicity and hospitality of Shaanxi among the cities and villages. I am waiting for you to come to Shaanxi.