Boats line up at the Dongsha fishing port in Dongtou district, Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, on Sept 15, a day before the fishing ban was officially lifted. [Photo by Ke Hongliang/66wz.com]
Dongtou district, which has been dubbed a garden in the sea as it boasts over 100 islets, has used its marine resources to benefit people over the past decade, local media outlets reported.
Statistics show that Dongtou's major economic and social indicators have multiplied in the past 10 years. Its GDP increased from 4.4 billion yuan ($618.2 million) in 2012 to 12.6 billion yuan in 2021, its general public budget revenue was 3.66 times the 2012 figure, and the per capita disposable incomes of urban and rural residents were 2.21 times and 3.04 times more than in 2012, respectively.
Using its environment to leverage its industrial rise and island vitalization, Dongtou has explored a new path toward common prosperity focusing human-ocean coexistence, land-sea coordination, and sustainable development, becoming a model island for the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."
In the past five years, a number of projects with investment totaling 44.9 billion yuan have started construction in Dongtou, among which two received 10 billion yuan or more and 30 received 100 million yuan or more.
This May, the zero-carbon wind power industrial park project, which received 10.2 billion yuan in investment, was put into operation in Dongtou, marking a solid step toward the development of a green and low-carbon circular economy.
In the past 10 years, Dongtou has built four ports that can berth vessels of up to 50,000 tons, ran the first international cruise port in southern Zhejiang province, and opened 10 international cargo shipping routes, handling almost half of all cargo in Wenzhou.
