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Taiyuan, 19 Nov (Xinhua) -- The inn run by Zhao Xiaohong, a descendant of Jin merchants, in the ancient city of Pingyao was originally the old residence of the ancestral silk satin village.
"My ancestors did a lot of business, selling tea as far as the current Russia." Zhao Xiaohong recounted the development of Jinshang business at that time. Ten years ago, she transformed the old mansion into an inn, retaining the original architectural style and attracting many overseas tourists. "Most of the tourists I receive now are French." She said.
Pingyao Ancient City, a World Cultural Heritage Site, is located in central Shanxi and has a history of more than 2,700 years and was once famous for its commerce. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, merchants set up ticket numbers here to achieve silver exchange in different places. At its peak, there were 22 ticket numbers in Pingyao, and the semicolon spread throughout 68 cities and commercial ports across the country, which greatly facilitated trade settlement. Pingyao was one of the financial centers of China at that time.
Xinhua News Agency reporter showed Pingyao ticket number. Photo by Zhao Yang, Xinhua News Agency
From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, with the collapse of the Qing government and the landing of great powers in China, the Pingyao ticket number gradually withdrew from the historical stage.
However, with years of financial accumulation, Shanxi continues to play an important role in the revolutionary war led by the Communist Party of China with new financial forms.
From 1939 to 1948, the Ji'nan Bank established by the CCP in Licheng County, Shanxi Province, issued a total of more than 200 billion Yuan of Ji'nan yuan, which played a positive role in supporting the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation.
Xing County, Lüliang City, an old revolutionary area, is a small county town on the Loess Plateau, located about 300 kilometers northwest of Taiyuan City, where the Northwest Farmers Bank, one of the predecessors of the Chinese Bank, was born. Before the founding of New China, the bank issued 3 million yuan of Xinong coins.
Former site of the Northwest Farmers Bank. Photo by Zhao Yang, Xinhua News Agency
Mr. Yang, 93, had printed money for the Communist Party-founded wartime bank. In 1945, he joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army and participated in the Liberation War.
"At that time, the 50 and 100 tickets were printed." He said.
The Ji'nan coin issued by Ji'nan Bank. Photo by Zhao Yang, Xinhua News Agency
Over the past 200 years, Shanxi's financial industry has brought many changes to China. But something known as "black gold" had a more profound impact on New China.
It's coal.
In the 70 years since the founding of New China, Shanxi has produced more than 19 billion tons of raw coal, which has been sent to 26 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, claiming that "half of the lights in the country have been lit". Shanxi province's raw coal production last year was 893 million tons, nearly 346 times the 2.582 million tons produced in 1949.
Coal supported the rapid development of New China, but at the same time left a heavy ecological "debt", resulting in about 3,000 square kilometers of coal mining subsidence in Shanxi. More than a decade ago, Shanxi, China's most polluted city, was the city with the most air pollution. This has forced Shanxi to change its development mode.
In 2009, Shanxi began to integrate coal resources and reverse the chaotic situation of mining. The improvement of people's livelihood is the starting point of this change. In 2018, more than 80% of Shanxi's fiscal expenditure was invested in the fields of environment, education, poverty alleviation, and transportation. The former "coal boss" is fully realizing the historic leap of "national resource-based economic transformation comprehensive supporting reform pilot zone".
Ecological poverty alleviation is making the Luliang Mountains green. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Lu Mengqi
Wang Ping was a coal miner in Shiqujie. In 2016, the coal mine, once known as the first "red mine" in New China, was shut down as an old coal mine. Lu'an Group, a large coal company in Shanxi, to which the coal mine belongs, relocated employees from WangPing Coal Mine to work for a biotechnology company that produces peony seed oil.
At first, because she was transferred to another post, she was very reluctant, but she did not expect that the labor intensity of the new company was low, and the monthly salary was nearly 1,000 yuan higher.
Workers work in a workshop that packs mudan seed oil. Photo by Zhao Yang, Xinhua News Agency
Feng Guobao, chairman of Shanxi Lu'an Shiyuanjie Zhihua Biotechnology Co., Ltd., said that the development of peony seed oil was originally the idea of the group to drive poverty alleviation in the Lvliang Mountains, and as a result, it developed into the group's most profitable coal transformation project. The land in the mountainous areas is poor, and farmers are more efficient than growing grain.
At present, this company has 300,000 mu of peony planting base, and the production capacity of peony seed oil is leading in China.
Wang Ping, who works in the packaging workshop, said: "Before working in the mine was dirty and tired, now it is different, the workshop is very clean, the daily chemical products in contact are edible products, which are also good for the body." ”
Workers demonstrate Mudan seed oil produced by Lu'an Group's transformation project. Photo by Zhao Yang, Xinhua News Agency
Feng Guobao introduced that the company exported 1500 kilograms of peony seed oil to South Korea this year, and overseas companies negotiated with them to cooperate in the development of daily chemical products.
Lüliang is one of the 14 concentrated contiguous areas of extreme poverty in China. The land here is barren, and only ecological agriculture can improve economic efficiency.
In Xing County, a deeply impoverished area, Sun Ping'er, a 59-year-old villager in Mengjiaping Village, once lived in a dilapidated cave.
Two years ago, he and his wife joined the afforestation poverty alleviation professional cooperative, and they can earn more than 50,000 yuan a year by planting trees to achieve poverty alleviation. Not long ago, he spent ten thousand yuan to renovate the cave and live in a spacious and bright house.
The new cave dwelling of Sun Ping'er, a villager in Mengjiaping Village, Xingxian County. Photo by Zhao Yang, Xinhua News Agency
Over the past 20 years, farmers in the impoverished mountainous areas of Shanxi, driven by the local government and leading enterprises, have embarked on a road to prosperity that can both get rid of poverty and restore the ecological environment, changed the development mode of relying solely on coal and other resources for development, and completed the return of 27.3 million mu of farmland to forests, putting on the "green coat" for the barren mountains.
By the end of 2018, the number of poor people in Shanxi Province had decreased to 255,000, and the incidence of poverty had dropped to 1.1%. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's poverty population has decreased from 98.99 million in 2012 to 16.6 million in 2018, with an average of more than 13 million people lifted out of poverty every year for six consecutive years.
Planner: Wang Jinye
Producer: Zhao Donghui, Han Song, Chen Yao
Coordinator: Huang Yan, Wu Di, Lü Mengqi, Zhang Zhengfu, Chen Siwu
Choreographer: Li Laifang, Fang Ning
Copywriters: Li Laifang, Fang Ning, Lu Mengqi
Camera: Zhao Yang, Feng Yu, Ma Minglei, Tian Yun
Voiced by: Yin Xiaosheng
Editing: Zhao Yang, Yin Xiaosheng
Post-production: Yin Xiaosheng
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Shanxi Branch of Xinhua News Agency
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Produced by Xinhua News Agency