When the wind blows in Luoyang, can the "Central Plains Capital" take off again?
Author: Zha Zhiyuan, researcher of Xinjing Think Tank
Source: Xinjing Think Tank
WeChat platform editor: Zhou Yue
With a strong industrial base, Luoyang is out of an upward curve.
Dance "Dragon Gate King Kong". Photo: Henan Satellite TV's official Weibo
Text | Zha Zhiyuan
Luoyang, recently more popular.
Not long ago, Henan Satellite TV's treasure-level god work "Dragon Gate King Kong" was out of the circle. In the sound of birdsong, the light illuminated the ancient Longmen Grottoes, and Vajrayogini danced. The "Treasure of the Town and Province" Longmen Grottoes has left countless viewers nostalgic, and also let Luoyang follow the fire.
The recent hit of "Wind Rises Luoyang" has aroused the audience's "Tang Dream" and "Luoyang Love", and has made the city of Luoyang attract the attention of netizens.
Some people say that the visible Luoyang is a peaceful and quiet city in the north, and the invisible Luoyang is a coordinate that cannot be ignored in the long river of history.
From the Shang Dynasty to the Han and Tang Dynasties, Luoyang, located in the Iloilo Basin, has always been the central city of Chinese civilization, and its decline began with the Anshi Rebellion, and its status further declined after the Northern Song Dynasty's capital Kaifeng.
Now, with the help of the east wind of the policy, can Luoyang take off again?
1 There was also unlimited scenery
Speaking of Luoyang, the hit drama "Wind Rises Luoyang" recreates the prosperous situation of the Shendu during the Tang Dynasty, when Luoyang was known as the Shendu, which was not only the political center, but also the largest metropolis in the world at that time.
The hit drama "Wind Rises in Luoyang" recreates the prosperous situation of the shendu during the Tang Dynasty. Photo / "Wind Rises Luoyang" official Weibo
But now Luoyang is long gone. Although in terms of fame, Luoyang's history and culture are much more dazzling than the provincial capital zhengzhou, its current strength is far worse than the latter.
In 2020, Luoyang's GDP was 512.84 billion yuan, while Zhengzhou's was 1200.3 billion yuan. The current economic volume of Luoyang is no longer the same as that of its historical economic position.
In fact, after the founding of New China, Luoyang was not without development opportunities.
After the Song Dynasty, due to topographical reasons, Luoyang lost its position as the central city of Henan.
After the founding of New China, Luoyang was an infinite scenery for a period of time.
During the "First Five-Year Plan" period, of the 156 projects aided by the Soviet Union to China, Henan had a total of 10, mainly distributed in Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Jiaozuo, Pingdingshan and other places, forming the Zhengluobian Industrial Zone.
Among them, Luoyang has 6 of the 10 projects, such as the later famous Luoyang Tractor Factory and Luoyang Thermal Power Station.
By 1956, Luoyang had formed the Jianxi Industrial Zone, which was on a par with Shenyang's Tiexi District, and by the end of the First Five-Year Plan, Luoyang had 26 large, medium and small factories.
It can be said that these "6 projects" directly laid the industrial foundation of Luoyang, and with these foundations, Luoyang has become a famous industrial city.
These enterprises are still the backbone and mainstay of Luoyang's industry and manufacturing industry, and the cornerstone of Henan's high-end manufacturing. For example, Luoyang-based China Yituo is a large chinese machinery manufacturing enterprise with a well-known trademark such as "Dongfang Hong". On September 16, 2020, it was selected into the list of "2020 National Technological Innovation Demonstration Enterprises".
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Luoyang was still one of the key cities in the country. As of the early 1990s, Luoyang's total economic output was still the largest in the province. By the mid-1990s, Zhengzhou had surpassed Luoyang and gradually distanced itself.
However, Luoyang's own limitations cannot be ignored.
Like many heavy industrial cities in the era of planned economy, Luoyang has also faced structural problems such as excessive dependence on state-owned enterprises, imbalance in the proportion of light and heavy industries, and difficulty in technological transformation and industrial upgrading for a long time. In the era of high-speed rail, its position in the transportation network also limits its external radiation.
All these restrict the transformation and development of Luoyang under the tide of market economy.
2 The pacesetters are getting farther away, and the pursuing soldiers are getting closer
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the "14th Five-Year Plan to Support the High-quality Development of Old Industrial Cities and Resource-based Cities Industrial Transformation and Upgrading Demonstration Zone Implementation Plan", which clearly proposed to support Luoyang to accelerate the construction of a provincial sub-central city and a national comprehensive transportation hub.
This is the rare time that Luoyang has appeared in such a heavyweight planning document over the years.
If compared with Zhengzhou, Luoyang is indeed under pressure.
During the "First Five-Year Plan" period, the urban pattern in Henan Province is also quietly changing.
In 1954, Zhengzhou replaced Kaifeng as the capital of Henan.
In addition to occupying the favorable terrain of the plain and forming a "meter-shaped" transportation advantage, this city pulled up by the train also included Gong County and Dengfeng in the eastern part of the Luoyang Basin, which originally belonged to luoyang.
Compared with the hub of Zhengzhou, Luoyang is obviously constrained by traffic.
However, the rapid rise of Zhengzhou is after entering the 21st century.
With the undertaking of a large number of industrial transfers from the eastern region, coupled with rich labor resources, Zhengzhou's economy has grown rapidly.
In 2000, Zhengzhou's GDP was only 73.8 billion yuan, and by 2020, Zhengzhou has reached 1200.3 billion yuan.
In the past 20 years, Zhengzhou's economic scale has expanded 16 times.
In contrast, Luoyang, in the 20 years from 2000 to 2020, Luoyang's economic growth rate is relatively slow, and the distance from Zhengzhou is getting farther and farther.
In 2000, Luoyang's GDP was 42.28 billion yuan, and the total economic volume was about 60% of Zhengzhou, accounting for nearly 10% of the province's total GDP. By 2020, Luoyang's GDP will be less than one-half of Zhengzhou's.
Luoyang Laojun Mountain Scenic Area. Photo/unsplash
In addition to the growing gap with Zhengzhou, the pressure on Luoyang also comes from the acceleration of the pace of catch-up.
The pressure comes first and foremost from within the province.
In Henan Province, Nanyang is struggling to catch up with Luoyang. In 2020, Nanyang's GDP was 392.586 billion yuan, ranking third in the province. Although there is still a gap of 100 billion yuan between Luoyang and Luoyang in terms of GDP scale, it is worth noting that in the first three quarters of this year, the nominal GDP growth rate of Nanyang was as high as 11.96%, higher than Luoyang's 10.64%.
In terms of population size, Nanyang, like Zhengzhou, is one of only two cities in Henan Province with a population of more than 10 million, which is more than 3 million more than Luoyang.
In addition, like Luoyang, Nanyang was promoted to the position of "deputy center" at this year's Henan Provincial Party Congress.
With the support of the same policy strength as Luoyang, Nanyang's pace of catching up with Luoyang is bound to accelerate.
Not only is Nanyang in the province catching up, but among the many non-provincial capital cities in the central and western regions, xiangyang and Yichang, the two provincial sub-central cities in Hubei that follow Luoyang in TERM, are also pressing forward.
In 2004, the GDP of Yichang and Xiangyang was 54.01 billion yuan and 55.79 billion yuan respectively, while the GDP of Luoyang at that time was 90.46 billion yuan, ranking first among the non-provincial capital cities in central China.
However, after 16 years of tug-of-war, in the 2020 urban GDP rankings, as the second and third oldest in Hubei Province, the GDP of Xiangyang and Yichang in 2020 has increased to 460.197 billion yuan and 426.142 billion yuan respectively, and the gap with Luoyang's 512.84 billion yuan has been greatly reduced.
In the document issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, Xiangyang and Luoyang are the only two provincial sub-central cities in the central region that have been mentioned to support construction.
3 Can I take off again?
Luoyang is also constantly working hard.
In November 2012, the State Council officially approved the Central Plains Economic Zone Plan (2012-2020). Since then, Luoyang's position as a "sub-central city" in the development pattern of the Central Plains Economic Zone and Henan Province has become more and more stable.
As the saying goes, "a skinny camel is bigger than a horse", and with a strong industrial base, Luoyang is walking out of an upward curve.
The latest data show that in the first three quarters of this year, Luoyang's GDP reached 407.01 billion yuan, an increase of 6.9% year-on-year, an increase of 39.134 billion yuan, ranking second in Henan Province. Among them, the added value of high-tech industries increased by 26.9% year-on-year, and industrial transformation and upgrading is accelerating.
In terms of transportation that once restricted development, Luoyang is transforming from a transportation node city to an important comprehensive transportation hub city in the country.
In the "13th Five-Year Plan for a Modern Comprehensive Transportation System" released by the state in 2017, it was proposed to build Luoyang into a national comprehensive transportation hub, and the National Development and Reform Commission document once again pointed out the status of Luoyang as a transportation hub.
In fact, Luoyang was a railway hub in the pudong railway era, and the Longhai Railway and jiaoliu railway met at the intersection of Luoyang Cross. Luoyang is also the first city to build a high-speed rail, and is currently stepping up the construction of the Henan-West Corridor of the Hunan High-speed Railway.
Luoyang's advantage also lies in holding the trump card of culture and tourism. In 2020, Luoyang received a total of 92.953 million domestic and foreign tourists throughout the year, with a total tourism income of 79.54 billion yuan. At the end of 2020, there were 63 A-class tourist attractions. Among them, there are 5 5A-class scenic spots and 27 4A-class scenic spots.
Luoyang's "14th Five-Year Plan" also clearly proposes that cultural tourism should be integrated and developed with high quality, and it will be built into an international cultural tourism city and an international humanities exchange center.
It is not difficult to find that in recent years, it is the healthy growth of industry that has supported the rapid development of the tertiary industry and promoted the steady rise of the overall national economic level and economic structure of Luoyang. This shows that the use of industry and new services, including tourism, is very important for urban development.
In 2019, Henan issued the "Implementation Plan for establishing a new mechanism for more effective regional coordinated development", which once again clearly supported the construction of Luoyang sub-central city:
Support the construction of Luoyang sub-central cities, plan and build the Luoyang Metropolitan Circle, lead the integrated development of the western transformation and innovation development demonstration zone, and enhance the driving force for eastern Shaanxi and southern Jin.
It can be seen that in a higher position, the mission of Luoyang has been not only the "provincial sub-center" city itself, but also the driving role of the surrounding areas.
Luoyang, which has been lost for a long time, can it get its wish this time by taking advantage of the east wind of the policy?
From the perspective of traffic improvement to industrial linkage and economic radiation, Luoyang can undoubtedly go further.
*Disclaimer: This article only represents the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of this official account
Think tank of the digital economy
Political Science and International Relations Forum
In order to better serve the construction of digital China, serve the construction of the "Belt and Road", and strengthen theoretical exchanges and practical exchanges in the process of digital economy construction. Experts and scholars from China's digital economy and the "Belt and Road" construction have established a digital economy think tank to contribute to the construction of digital China. Wei Jianguo, former vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, served as honorary president, and well-known young scholars Huang Rihan and Chu Yin led the way. The Political Science and International Relations Forum is a dedicated platform under the umbrella of the Digital Economy Think Tank.