A winery was built on the sand pit

◎ Reporter Liu Xiaohui Correspondent Huang Shan

Since 2020, the Zhihuiyuanshi Winery in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain has become an Internet celebrity punch card.

The most notable feature of the winery is the local use of building materials: the stones sifted out of the desert are paved into buildings and roads; the pavilion is built with demolished old telephone poles and vines; and the recycled railroad tracks become grapevine pillars. Eyes full of dark gray, pale blue stones, large, small, square, round, regular, irregular... These originally abandoned Helan Mountain stones were polished by hand by stonemasons, and decorated with traditional Chinese stone carvings, green bricks and green tiles, turning them into a patchwork of simple and elegant buildings. However, few people know that this place was once a sand quarry with bare surface and slag on the ground, and the history of sand mining has been more than 20 years.

Aerial view of The Source Stone Winery

The rebirth of the sand quarry

In the early 1980s, Zhihuiyuanshi Winery was once a sand and gravel field. Digging sand shoveling sand, loading and transportation... While sand digging enterprises are making profits, the environment of gravel and sand has also become their heart disease. In 2008, the Xixia District of Yinchuan City, Ningxia increased the improvement of the ecological environment around Helan Mountain, coupled with the fact that sand mining enterprises are facing the depletion of sand and gravel resources, and the ecological governance of sand quarries is imminent.

Afforestation and changing the state of the earth are the basis of ecological restoration. According to the plan, Ningxia Zhihui Industrial Group Co., Ltd. began to plant trees and greenery on the abandoned sand mining field for ecological restoration. For several consecutive years, from windbreak forests to fruit forests, from a few trees to hundreds of acres, green spots have stained barren slopes, but they cannot completely change the lack of regional economic development.

Development urgently needs to be transformed, and new industries need to be cultivated.

The eastern foothills of Helan Mountain have poor soil conditions, but rich heat, large temperature difference between day and night, and good air permeability of sand and gravel soil, which is recognized by the industry as the most suitable golden area for growing wine grapes.

Ningxia Zhihui Industrial Group Co., Ltd. invested in three phases, treated a total of 6,000 acres of goaf area, and transformed 3 sand mining pits under Helan Mountain. The pit drop is just right to make a cellar, and some pits divert water into lakes. On the sand mining pit, 2,000 acres of wine grape planting base has been built, and more than 10,000 acres of ecological forests have been built. The park has planted more than 2 million plants of 312 species. Through ecological restoration, the completion of forest belts and water systems, the microclimate and living environment of the surrounding areas have been improved.

In 2014, the Yinchuan Municipal Government took this place as one of the ecological restoration projects of Helan Mountain, and invested 600 million yuan to jointly build a leisure, cultural and sports park with Ningxia Zhihui Industrial Group Co., Ltd., which also allowed citizens to enjoy green space for free. One of the sand pits built ZhihuiYuanshi Winery, the former sand pit transformation and upgrading into a green and sustainable development of the grape industry; the other sand pit built the Helan Mountain Cultural Sports and Leisure Park, according to the topography of the pit itself, the design of lakes and waterfalls, pavilions, fitness tracks, basketball courts, etc., has become the back garden of local people's free cycling on holidays. The third sand mining pit has taken effective measures to continuously restore the ecological environment.

Ecology and industry are mutually beneficial and win-win

Sweat watered the miracle. Garden-style wineries grow on the Gobi Desert. Here, ecology not only survives in the main framework of the building, but also permeates every concept of operation and management. It is understood that the vines pruned every year can be used as decoration; the withered trees and discarded oak stoppers in the park are also reused. The functional details of the building are also integrated into the ecological concept, such as the design of the eaves is more in line with the concept of symbiosis, which is convenient for the surrounding birds to come here to make nests. There are more than 300 kinds of plants in the winery, which has been selected as the sixth batch of national cultural industry demonstration bases.

With the development of society, the potential of the mainland wine market is slowly being explored. Grape tourism is an indispensable element of Ningxia's global tourism. Zhihui Yuanshi Winery is located in the golden tourism belt of Ningxia West Line and the core area of wine grape industry in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain, and is blessed with unique tourism resources. The winery is built on an abandoned mine sand pit, which also satisfies people's curiosity.

Nowadays, as a national 4A-level tourist attraction, ZhihuiYuanshi Winery has opened an ecological industry that integrates diversified development such as wine, leisure and entertainment, and ecological tourism. It receives more than 200,000 tourists a year, and the annual new tourism output value income reaches more than 20 million yuan. The former Zhenbeibao mining area has now formed a green industry such as red wine, tourism, culture, catering, homestay, etc., and the integration and development of various formats such as "ecology + red wine" and "ecology + tourism", and the surrounding sand and gravel mining enterprises have also entered the green development track of "mining, governance, transformation and effect". The green transformation of Zhihuiyuanshi Winery is a classic case of ecological restoration and value realization of abandoned mine pits in Beibao, Xixia District, Yinchuan City.

The wine industry can not only bring economic benefits, brand benefits, but also provide jobs, plant grapes to improve ecology, make full use of wasteland resources to create wineries and vineyard eco-tourism integrated development, can drive the people of surrounding villages and towns to work in wineries, land or circulation or their own planting of grapes, per mu of income is three or four times more than the original planting of corn.

Nowadays, the wine in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain has achieved the organic integration of planting, brewing and processing, and cultural tourism, which is a typical example of the integrated development of the first, second, and third industries. Based on this, Ningxia has gradually become an important wine region in China, with more than 80 wineries built so far, and the grape planting area in the region has reached 570,000 mu, accounting for 1/4 of the national planting area. The winery in the entire production area receives more than 600,000 tourists a year, which is becoming an indispensable element of Ningxia's global tourism.

Save the ecology of the whole world

In 2017, Ningxia proposed to vigorously implement the strategy of ecological districting, take the initiative to undertake the important mission of maintaining ecological security in the northwest and even the whole country, build a pioneer area for the construction of ecological civilization in the western region, take the landscape and forest fields and lakes as a community of life, coordinate the implementation of integrated ecological protection and restoration, and build a "three mountains" ecological security barrier focusing on Helan Mountain, Liupan Mountain and Luoshan Nature Reserve.

In 1988, Helan Mountain was approved as a national nature reserve. However, with the development of economic and social development, human activities in the Helan Mountain Nature Reserve have become increasingly complex, especially after the expansion in 2003, the northern part of helan Mountain, which was newly included in the reserve, has been devastated due to the large number of mineral developments. In particular, the eastern foothills of the Helan Mountains were once the main production areas of sand and gravel, and long-term high-intensity mining has formed many residual pits with an average depth of 40 meters, with sparse vegetation, bare sand and gravel, a sharp decline in ecosystem quality, and a significant weakening of the ecological safety barrier function.

In May 2017, the ecological defense war of Helan Mountain was officially launched.

Ningxia completely shut down all coal mines, non-coal mines, coal washing plants, etc. in the Helan Mountain Nature Reserve. The Helan Mountain Ecological Protection and Restoration Project was launched, involving a total of 35 projects in six major projects, with a construction scale of 82,381 hectares and an estimated capital of 7.277 billion yuan. In the core area and buffer zone of Helan Mountain National Nature Reserve, natural restoration is the mainstay, and the intensity of enclosure monitoring is increased, and artificial auxiliary measures are taken to promote vegetation restoration in the experimental area. The state has invested 1.83 billion yuan to carry out pilot projects for the ecological protection and restoration of landscapes, forests, fields and lakes in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain, and implemented 107 ecological restoration projects.

Shizuishan City west of Helan Mountain, coal resources are the traditional advantage of Shizuishan City mineral resources, known as "plugged coal city". It has the characteristics of "three lows, six highs" (low ash, low sulfur, low phosphorus, high calorific value, high specific resistivity, high mechanical strength, high refined coal recovery rate, high block coal rate, high chemical activity), and is widely used in metallurgy, chemical industry, building materials and other industries. Relying on rich natural resources, Shizuishan has become an important old industrial base in the northwest. Also based on historical reasons, the difficulty of ecological governance is beyond imagination. There are many points, long lines, wide areas and large quantities, and the remediation points are scattered in more than 1,200 square kilometers of the protected area, with an area of 62,000 mu. The remediation point was seriously damaged, the deepest valley of the mining pit reached 120 meters, the length of the ditch was 5.7 kilometers, and the maximum treatment area was 25 square kilometers, involving 197 enterprises such as coal mines, non-coal mines, coal washing plants, coal storage yards, etc., with 208 operating owners, and also involved many historical problems left over from the rectification of mining enterprises.

In 2017, Shizuishan City began to save the ecology in the region. In 2017 and 2018, 118 coal mines, coal washing plants and coal storage yards were closed, a total of 550,000 square meters of buildings and 48,000 sets of machinery and equipment were demolished, and 1.98 billion yuan was invested to implement the ecological restoration project of "one line, two ditches and multiple pieces", 0.35 million mu of artificial afforestation, 62,000 mu of remediation area, and 30,000 trees were planted. By 2021, a total of 146 square kilometers of treatment area has been completed inside and outside the protected area, 278 treatment points have been completed, 682 coal mines, non-coal mines and coal-related enterprises have been closed and withdrawn, 35,000 mu of afforestation has been planted, and 101 square kilometers of grass seeds have been sown. The mining area that was once full of slag and sewage has once again become a closed mountain and a forest, and greenery has sprouted.

With the gradual depletion of coal and other resources and the transformation and development of the city, the traditional coal-producing area of Shizuishan City, Dawukou Carboniferous Well Area, has begun the road of transformation with the help of the preserved "Baili Mining Area", where some abandoned factories and mines have been transformed into "industrial tourism + film and television shooting bases", bringing sustainable income to the people.

The situation of Liupan Mountain is similar to that of Helan Mountain.

Sanguankou Mining Area is located in the southern foothills of Liupan Mountain, covering an area of 2288 acres, and is the main producer of limestone in Guyuan City and surrounding areas. Chaotic management and disorderly mining have made this area a major disaster area for ecological damage and environmental pollution. Since Ningxia launched the "Green Shield" special rectification action of the nature reserve, a comprehensive inspection of human activity facilities in the Liupanshan Nature Reserve and the outer 2 km zone has been carried out, and 125 places have been cleaned up and rectified, the construction area of the demolition facilities is 235,000 square meters, the ecological restoration is 1,500 mu, and the relocation and demolition of the cement plant was completed at the end of December 2019. The industrial and mining enterprises in the Sanguankou mining area have all been cleared to zero.

Immediately after, ecological restoration work was put on the agenda. How will vegetation recover in the face of steep, exposed mountains? How can ecological restoration technologies and solutions be developed and implemented to achieve the desired results?

The hanging net spraying technology has played an important role in the restoration of vegetation at the Three Passes. The technicians of ecological restoration mixed seeds such as alfalfa and lemon strips into the soil and hung them on the net, and then fixed them on the hillside, and the hanging net sprayed area of 270,000 square meters, covering more than 80% of the cliff surface. In addition, Sanguankou also promoted the ecological restoration and treatment of the mining area in three phases by leveling the soil, planting grass and afforestation, and reinforcing the slope protection, and successively invested 68.97 million yuan, and the treatment and restoration area reached 1683 mu.

Today, the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain have regained green mountains and clear waters, becoming a high-quality wine region, and the restored pits have been turned into leisure parks.

In 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the World Conservation Union jointly released 10 typical cases of ecological protection and restoration with Chinese characteristics, and the ecological protection and restoration of Helan Mountain was listed among them.