Zubair Qureshi
Nanjing (China)
Media persons from around 12 countries are currently visiting one of China’s most developed provinces Jiangsu located in the country’s east coastal area. The trip titled ‘Hi Jiangsu 2019’ is jointly organized by China Daily and the Jiangsu provincial government. The six-day visit includes tour of three major cities of the province, namely, Nanjing, the provincial capital, Yangzhou, an ancient city and Nantong, one an important coastal city.
On the first day of their trip, the media persons were taken to a Xianlin New Village, a sub-district of Qixia district of Nanjing city. It may be mentioned here in ancient times Nanjing was capital China during Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It is one of the four cities that have served as capital of China. The other three are Beijing, Xian and Luoyang.
Xianlin new village was founded in 2004 on the place of a dairy farm. People living in old-fashioned houses were relocated, and provided with new residences and urban facilities like employment, transport, education, healthcare and social security. While talking to Pakistan Observer, an official of the Xianlin new village, Xu Jun said the place used to be a dairy farm, however, under the vision of President Xi and Communist Party local leadership, the entire area was re-designed and developed with targeted services for targeted groups.
Today, Xianlin sub-district is a model village for the rest of the province where volunteers are working day and night to provide services to the community members. Using modern technology, a group has been formed on mobile app that shares information and updates the officials of the sub district, volunteers as well as the community members about various issues for instance, area’s development, individual’s health, some community news to share or meeting to take place etc.
Xianlin sub-district covers an area of 32 sq-km where around 230,000 people live. In the sub-district 12 institutions of higher education and a university too are established. Almost every day, the volunteers engage local government officials and social workers on governance issues and supervise their work.
Earlier, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of China Daily Mr Kang Bing while welcoming the media delegation said China Daily in collaboration with local and provincial governments continues to organize such trips for media persons so that they could share story of China’s progress to their people through their esteemed media houses. Jiangsu, he said, is the fastest developing province taking swift measures and adopting various models to eradicate poverty and ensure progress and prosperity for its people.
A birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, the province boasts of many cultures and traditions. Its scenic sights and natural beauty also makes it a tourists’ paradise as the province is home to 290lakes two of the top five freshwater lakes in the country: Tai Lake and Hongze Lake.
Later, the media delegation also visited Zhonghua Gate, also known as Gathering Treasure Gate. As a precious historic relic, Zhonghua Gate is the largest exiting city gate or walled city (around 35-km long). The city offers an outstanding picture of Chinese defence architecture and known around the world as relic of city architecture.
