Zhang Yu

    JeniZhang13@163.com

    YANTIAN District, an administrative district that is dubbed the “Gold Coast” of Shenzhen and boasts a superior natural environment, turned 20 Friday.

    A conference, themed “New era, new journey, new Yantian,” was held at the Yantian Administrative and Cultural Center on Friday afternoon. The first Party chief of the district, Dai Beifang, State Council counselor Wang Jingsheng and incumbent Party chief of the district, Du Ling, attended the event.

    “Twenty years ago, along with the members of the old leadership team present here, we witnessed the formal establishment of the sixth administrative district in Shenzhen,” said Dai.

    He added that Yantian was built to promote the development of eastern Shenzhen, and that the rapid development of Yantian over the past two decades proved it was a correct decision.

    Over the past 20 years, tremendous changes have taken place in Yantian, with port logistics, coastal tourism, biological science and technology, and gold jewelry becoming the four pillar industries in the district.

    In 2017, the GDP of Yantian reached 58.549 billion yuan (US$9.33 billion). Revenue in general public budgets totaled 3.367 billion yuan, and total tax revenue reached 7.687 billion yuan, which was 20.4 times, 13.5 times and 30.9 times more than before the establishment of the district, respectively.

    Yantian Port, the pride of the district, has become a super port with an annual throughput exceeding 11 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and is now an important international shipping hub.

    The district is also home to a number of leading industries and high-tech enterprises, including property giant, Vanke, the world’s largest genome sequencing organization, BGI, and renowned jewelry company, Chow Tai Fook.

    Enjoying a good ecological environment, Yantian has a forest coverage rate of over 67 percent, and the green coverage ratio in the built-up area is 44.6 percent. There are 63 different parks in the district, and the 19.5-kilometer-long coastline is known as one of the eight most beautiful coasts in China.

    A photo exhibition is also on display in the district’s archive, and will be open to the public until October.