HOHHOT, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- In Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shiguai District was a major coal base during China's first Five-Year Plan period (1953-1957), serving as a key supplier for the country's north in the decades that followed.
Nestled in the hinterland of the Yinshan Mountain Range, the 761-square-kilometer district has a coal mining history of over 300 years. While driving rapid regional economic growth, excessive coal development has left Shiguai with a coal-dominated industrial structure, deteriorating ecology and frequent geological disasters.
In 2011, the central government listed Shiguai as a resource-exhausted area. But the district has since embarked on a path of high-quality growth through transformation.
To shake off this coal-dominated growth pattern, Shiguai has largely eliminated its coal production capacity and boosted the upgrading of its traditional manufacturing firms. As a result, the coal industry's share in the district's total industrial output dropped from its historical peak of 80 percent to 6.1 percent in 2022.
To adjust its industrial structure further, Shiguai has in recent years been cultivating strategic emerging industries and the tourism sector, while advancing environmental protection and ecological restoration.
Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the district has formed a diversified industrial system, comprised of wind power equipment, new materials and digital economy sectors. The share of strategic emerging industries in its industrial output now exceeds 40 percent.
Taking advantage of a location suitable for the development of wind power, the district has tapped into related equipment manufacturing, which has now become its pillar industry and had an annual output of over 11.8 billion yuan (about 1.67 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024.
For many resource-exhausted areas, traditional growth models are unsustainable, and the key to transformation is building a modern industrial system with inherent resilience, said Xie Gaodi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
According to Xie, Shiguai's industrial transformation is not only a microcosm of China's local economic development, but also a typical example of the development of the country's resource-based regions.
Since 2008, China has announced a total of 69 resource-exhausted regions, with coal-exhausted areas accounting for approximately half.
In Shiguai, gloom had been prevalent for many years due to extensive coal mining activities, which also left the district with a 65-square-kilometer goaf.
Eyeing ecological restoration, Shiguai has carried out large-scale greening campaigns for its land. And with a forest coverage rate increasing from 17.7 percent in 2007 to 46.2 percent today, the district has been named one of China's model urban areas for green development.
Its sustained efforts have paid off. In 2024, the number of days with good air quality in the district increased to 320, accounting for nearly 88 percent of the whole year. Its main pollutants have since decreased further, and the quality of its water has remained good.
Xiao Yu, an associate researcher at the CAS, said that Shiguai has realized a fundamental reversal from "ecological deficit" to "ecological surplus."
The district's high-quality transformation has proved that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," Xiao said.
As its once prosperous coal mining activities have left Shiguai with abandoned mine pits, industrial tourism has been thriving and injecting new vitality into local development in recent years.
Liu Xuehua, a professor at Tsinghua University, noted that amid the rapid development of industrial tourism, resource-exhausted areas like Shiguai should develop their industrial tourism in line with local conditions.
While using cultural heritage resources such as abandoned mine pits to cultivate new growth points, they should also enhance public awareness of environmental protection, Liu said. ■
