Efforts to deliver emergency rations and relocate residents are continuing at a brisk pace, as torrential downpours lash Zixing City in central China's Hunan Province have triggered floods and led to power and telecommunications outages in mountainous regions.
Zixing City has been experiencing a record rainfall since last Friday due to the impact of Typhoon Gaemi, with 14 roads interrupted.
The Department of Emergency Management of Hunan Province dispatched four helicopters to transport relief supplies and transfer trapped injured residents.
By Tuesday afternoon, more than 130 flights had been completed by four helicopters, with over 30 tons of emergency supplies, such as rice, flour, cooking oil and quilts, delivered to flood-isolated villages, which can enable the daily living needs of 15,000 people for two days.
In addition to transport supplies to 33 villages in four towns, helicopters are also used to transfer the injured, with medical workers, stretchers and ambulances standing by at the temporary distributing center of supplies.
At present, 47 injured residents have been transferred by air.
When flying to the flood-isolated areas, helicopters have also carried more than 100 personnel including rescuers, firefighters and medical staff in batches, as part of the efforts to resume the normal production and living order of affected residents in the flood-hit villages as soon as possible.
As of 17:00 on Saturday, the average precipitation of Bamianshan Town in Zixing City had reached 498 millimeters. And the rain stopped basically on Sunday.
Torrential rains have not only damaged roads and washed away bridges, but also caused power and internet outages in the township nestled deep within mountains. And multiple rescue units consist of firefighters, armed police and volunteers had to walk into the disaster-hit areas.
As of Tuesday morning, 15 rescue units, with about 10 members in each, hiked through flooded areas to enter the 15 flood-isolated villages in Bamianshan as roads leading to the villages were severely damaged.
Currently, more than 200 residents have been relocated, with all of them well supplied. So far, 17 injured people in urgent need of medical treatment have been transferred and sent to hospitals.
Emergency rescue underway in flood-hit villages of Hunan Province
The high-quality development of east China's Shandong Province featuring innovation and green development has been providing opportunities to foreigners ranging from business promoters to even internet influencers.
As leader in the country's foreign trade, the coastal province of Shandong has been making consistent efforts to push forward its high-level opening-up.
In the first half of this year, Shandong imported and exported 1.62 trillion yuan (230 billion U.S. dollars) worth of goods, marking a 4.3-percent year-over-year increase, according to the customs data released in mid-July.
The province's export to regions like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union (EU), South Korea, and Brazil continued growing during the period.
Ryan Norman, an American living in Rizhao City, has been witnessing all the changes for years as Shandong's close economic ties with the world have boosted its development.
By sharing short videos of him wondering in local markets and making dishes in a big wok, Ryan has attracted over one million followers on social media.
"I am Ryan Norman, an American from California. Now I am married with a Rizhao woman. I have been in China for 19 years. I did some business before, but in recent years I've been making short videos. If the weather is good, staying on beach makes me happier. There is a 28-kilometer sunshine seaside track and every summer, we run back and forth along the track," he said.
The high-quality development of Shandong comes together with green development. In 2023, the province generated over 158 billion kilowatt-hours of green power from new energy and renewables, increasing by 21.9 percent year on year and representing 24.4 percent of the total power generated, up 3.6 percent from 2022.
Last year, the province issued a three-year action plan on promoting green and low-carbon high-quality development, as the province is set to pursue a deep integration of culture and tourism.
"As the environment is getting better and better, more locals like to visit our tea tourism cultural park and its good reputation has attracted droves of tourists," said Yan Zaoning, director of a local tea park.
Sebastian Valcic from Germany now works in an innovation zone in Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong. He said in recent years, he witnessed over 500 enterprises from countries like Germany, France, Finland, and Japan setting branches in the innovation zone, and these changes boosted his confidence in China's high-quality development.
"Thanks to the institutional and mechanism reform of the Jinan Innovation Zone, I, as a German, can have the opportunity to join the investment promotion department of the Jinan Innovation Zone management committee. I am responsible for attracting global investment. Over the recent years, our team has signed over 100 projects. The Jinan Innovation Zone is a national new- and high-tech development zone, a free trade zone, a comprehensive bonded zone, a pilot zone for upgrading development engine, and a sci-tech innovation financial reform pilot zone. The innovation zone has so many institutional innovations and preferential policies for expanding opening-up. Every time we have an investment promotion event, I always want the investors to know how special here is," said Sebastian Valcic, an external liaison officer of the management committee's investment promotion department.
Apart from attracting investment, Sebastian Valcic said his team will also work to connect enterprises so that they can cooperate with potential partners up and down the industrial chain.
"We will introduce companies up and down the industrial chain to the enterprises so that they can connect, communicate, and cooperate with one another," he said.
According to its three-year action plan, Shandong will continue to enhance the quality and level of its trade and investment by enhancing the efficiency of using foreign investment and deepening international economic and trade cooperation.
Shandong high-quality development provides opportunities to international firms, individuals
