“Chinese-style modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature.”
——Xi Jinping
One person, 30 years, 7 hand-drawn maps, recording the lost and regained transformation of Guiyang’s Guancheng River.
The earliest colored drawing has yellowed. Lei Yueqin, an 89-year-old “old Guiyang” resident, always has shining eyes when flipping through these seven maps.
A national model for ecological civilization and a national outstanding volunteer, she has patrolled the river for decades. In 1994, her first hand-drawn map of the Guancheng River area marked the river in red as “polluted.” In 2004, the second map showed the river as a gray “dead river.” From 2008 to 2015, she drew four more times, with one marking the river as “dead” and the others leaving no trace.
“Drinking a mouthful of clean water” became Lei Yueqin’s wish.
The Guancheng River is 7.5 kilometers long. It flows 3.3 kilometers through old Guiyang into the Nanming River, then 160 kilometers to the Wu River, and another 540 kilometers into the Yangtze River.
However, starting in the 1990s, this mother river gradually disappeared from the view of Guiyang residents.
Urban development, competition between humans and water for space, and water pollution.
The urban section of the river began to be covered with thick cement slabs, with parking lots and snack cities built on top. By the early 2000s, about 2,400 meters of the main river channel had been covered, and combined with road coverage, only 592 meters remained open, turning the river into an underground canal. In 2018, in response to a special state inspection, the local government also covered the tributaries.
Is the short 7.5-kilometer river a “minor detail” or “closely related” to the protection of the Yangtze River? Should the river be returned to the people by continuing to “cover” it during rectification to hide the ugliness, or by “uncovering” it for thorough treatment? This was a test for Party members and officials to establish and practice a correct view of political performance.
“To promote the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, we must focus on great protection, not great development, adhere to ecological priority and green development, and ensure that all economic activities involving the Yangtze River do not damage the ecological environment.”
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed the direction and clarified the methods.
In May 2019, Guiyang launched dredging of the Guancheng River. By November 2020, all black and odorous water bodies in the Guancheng River basin had been eliminated. In September 2021, Guiyang proposed removing the covers on the main channel of the Guancheng River. In January 2024, the river, which had disappeared for decades, returned gracefully.
In 2025, the elderly Lei Yueqin used green ink to draw the seventh map of the Guancheng River. Clear, rippling blue waves leaped off the paper!
Dredging
“Temporary measures are not fundamental solutions. To implement, we must follow General Secretary Xi Jinping’s requirements and work hard.”
The covering of the Guancheng River reflected a loss in development philosophy.
“The city developed rapidly, with many management debts. The Guancheng River gradually lost its source of flowing water and became a sewage channel,” recalled Liu Zhu.
Having worked in the Guiyang Architectural Design Institute, the Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Bureau, and the Municipal Government Office, Liu Zhu had dealt with urban construction and management for most of his career. He remembered that in 2003, Guiyang, as the capital of Guizhou Province, built its first sewage treatment plant. The karst terrain couldn’t hold water, the water source depended on rain, and rainwater and sewage were mixed.
“The sewage stank, and residents complained strongly. Covering it was once seen as a practical measure.”
