These paragraphs are taken from the chapters about Shanxi in China Atlas. Literally, what is described here should be rich land. Indeed, Shanxi in history is a good place for outstanding people. Pingyang, Puban and Anyi in ancient times were all built here. It was from here that Li Shimin and his son sent troops to unify China at the end of Sui Dynasty and established the Great Tang Dynasty that the Han people were proud of. By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the prosperity of Shanxi Bank made Shanxi rich and became the financial center of the whole country at that time. God also seems to have a special preference for Shanxi. In this land that gave birth to Wang Wei, Liu Zongyuan, Sima Guang and other literati, Mo Kehe, Wu Yu and Wu Zetian, there are mineral resources that people from other places covet. There are 49 kinds of minerals with proven reserves in Shanxi, including coal, iron, aluminum, copper, molybdenum, titanium, gallium, lead, zinc, gold, silver, cobalt, limestone, clay, gypsum, mirabilite and magnesium salt, and there are 620 mining areas. Among them, the reserves of coal, bauxite, refractory clay, bauxite, perlite, gallium and platinum rank first in the country; The reserves of rutile, magnesium salt and mirabilite rank second in China, and the reserves of potash feldspar rank third. The reserves of ferrotitanium and flux limestone rank fourth; The reserves of feldspar, gypsum, cobalt, copper, germanium and gold are among the best in China. In those rural times in the past, Shanxi people relied on their hard work and wisdom to make Shanxi one of the most economically developed provinces in China. After the founding of New China, Shanxi people began to selflessly support the construction of other parts of the country with these resources that originally belonged to themselves and even should belong to future generations. As one writer said, "Shanxi has warmed the whole country with its light and heat." From liberation to reform and opening up, Shanxi's economy is still at a medium level in the country because of its strong industrial base in the past. But now, Shanxi is backward. Shanxi's per capita GDP ranks from 1980 to 200 1, which has dropped by 9 places in 20 years; The income of urban residents has been lagging behind for a long time, ranking 23rd in 1980 and 29th in 1998. 1999, the lowest in China for two consecutive years in 2000. The history that once made Shanxi people proud is making people living in this land feel faint pain now. Perhaps only those historical sites scattered around Shanxi and factories that have been declining for many years are still silently telling the glory of this yellow land.
When the water from Fenhe River slowly flows into Fenhe Park in Taiyuan City, Taiyuan, a short 10 km long river, looks like a river. Taiyuan citizens once cheered for the long-lost river, and many people climbed the bridge and waited all day to meet them. After the transformation, the banks of Fenhe River are shaded by trees and covered with green grass. But no one except Shanxi people knows that this beautiful river is just a reservoir. Shanxi people once again whitewashed their ruined faces with their own wisdom. Shanxi is really short of water! More and more large-scale mining has seriously damaged the stratum water storage structure in Shanxi, and the direct result is land subsidence and rapid decline of groundwater level. At present, the river runoff in Shanxi Province is only11400 million cubic meters, the second lowest compared with other provinces in China, only a little more than Ningxia, and the per capita water consumption is only one fifth of the national average. On June 2nd, 2003, 10, there was an unobtrusive report, "Beijing transferred 50 million cubic meters of water from Ce Tian Reservoir to Guanting Reservoir for the first time, which is equivalent to 25 Kunming Lakes. Jinshui's entry into Beijing is the first time in history that a brother province has concentrated water supply to the capital. " In Shanxi, when he was on the verge of extinction, he selflessly gave what little material he had left to others. This reminds people of the scene of 1994 Shanxi people collecting money for the Yellow River Diversion Project. These so-called donations are deducted from personal wages. The reason for raising money is simple. The project belongs to Shanxi, and the huge amount of money spent can only be solved by Shanxi itself. Associated with the large-scale projects such as the National Opera House and the National Stadium currently under construction, it seems that the survival of Shanxi people is far less important than those projects that can bring glory to the country! I'm afraid it's hard for people who rely on coal for heating in Shanxi to imagine that a considerable number of miners' families in Shanxi rely on wastewater discharged from mines to maintain domestic water all the year round. At the same time of serious shortage of water resources, almost all rivers in Shanxi are polluted, with the length of 3753 kilometers, of which 67.2% are super-III polluted rivers and 45.8% are super-V seriously polluted rivers. The only groundwater in Shanxi has been eroded by many harmful ions to varying degrees, and the salinity and total hardness have been greatly improved, and some harmful substances even exceeded the standard by 26 times. In Taiyuan in the new century, the Shahe River, Huyu River and Yu He River, which once entrusted the children of the old Taiyuan with good memories, have already become stinking ditches. And the whole of Shanxi, except for the source of some rivers, has been unable to find a decent river. As their ancestors, I don't know what it's like to see the descendants of Shanxi coming to know what a river is with pictures. Standing next to any railway line in Shanxi, you will see a series of trains full of coal whistling eastward and southward. Since 2003, the nationwide power shortage has affected the economic security of the whole country, and the country needs more coal to ensure the normal operation of more and more generator sets. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou, all the leading areas of China's economic development that you can think of, are short of electricity. For the people there, if the coal in Shanxi cannot be delivered in time, their happy life will leave them mercilessly. This summer in 2004, it made them feel hotter than any other year, which seemed to verify their concerns. The power shortage seems to have turned Shanxi into a hot potato overnight. In fact, Shanxi, which accounts for a quarter of the country's coal production, now accounts for more than three quarters of the country's coal production! In order to ensure the transportation of electric coal, the satisfaction rate of other goods in Shanxi was usually less than 10% in the first half of 2004. Taiyuan Railway Sub-bureau now has 6,400 wagons every day. In addition to the key materials that must be guaranteed, only more than 300 wagons are left to transport other materials. Products that cannot be shipped, including stainless steel, instruments, electrical appliances, hardware, etc., have much higher added value than coal. Who can bear the loss in Shanxi? The expansion of market demand will inevitably stimulate the rise of prices, which is an unchangeable law of the market. However, the price of Shanxi coal seems to have become accustomed to drifting away from this law, and every attempt to raise prices will be drowned in endless accusations from developed provinces that use Shanxi coal. Shanxi is regarded as an inexhaustible resource pool in the minds of those provinces that use Shanxi coal. In times of crisis, they always look at Shanxi with the thinking of planned economy. They know that Shanxi will always be weak in the conflict with them. In their eyes, the cost of coal is just as simple as that on the computer. They will not consider the ecological disaster caused by mining, nor will they consider the ghosts in large and small mine disasters. Maybe they think Shanxi has earned enough, or they are too used to Shanxi's dedication.
Shanxi is a strange place. Compared with Ruhr in Germany and New South Wales in Australia, these coal-producing areas occupy an unparalleled economic position in the host country, but Shanxi, which is also famous for its coal production, is so different-Shanxi has resources, but it is so backward. In the survey of rural poor population in various provinces and regions in China, the proportion of rural poor population in Shanxi Province is 8%, ranking fifth in the country. In the statistics of the scale of urban poor population below the basic living security line in various provinces, the scale of urban poor population in Shanxi Province accounts for 7. 17%, ranking seventh in the country; In the statistics of the incidence of rural poverty in China, the incidence of extreme poverty in Shanxi is the highest in the central provinces, reaching 24.3%; In the comparison of globalization index, the globalization process index of Shanxi is 35.49%, that of Guangzhou is 364.93%, and that of Tianjin is 208. 78%; In the comparison of national ecological vulnerability, Shanxi belongs to a very fragile ecological environment area; In the China Sustainable Development Report of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanxi's sustainable development capacity ranks fifth from the bottom in the country. The impression of Shanxi's backwardness seems to have changed in 2003. This year, Shanxi's GDP increased by 12.5% compared with the previous year, ranking fifth in the country, the highest level in the same period in the past decade. However, if we analyze it a little, this set of figures is so disturbing. In this year, the contribution rate of high pollution and high energy consumption industries such as coal, electric power, smelting and chemical industry to Shanxi's GDP growth reached a record 68%! It seems that the industrial structure of Shanxi has not changed, but we are exploiting resources faster. We might as well compare Shanxi with other provinces in China. When Shanxi people are excited about its GDP reaching 244.5 billion yuan, the figures in Guangdong Province are 65.438+03.449 billion yuan, Shandong Province is 65.438+02.430 billion yuan, and Jiangsu Province is 65.438+024.51billion yuan-this is the gap. When Shanxi exports resources at a low price and imports consumer goods at a high price, the gap is so natural. Ironically, when the central government established the strategy of developing the western region, Shanxi was not among them. No wonder Shanxi people laugh at themselves, "Shanxi is not a thing." Fortunately, there is nothing more remarkable about that big development strategy so far than building several expressway and oil pipelines that run through the east, west, north and south, otherwise Shanxi will really be laughed at.
If Shanxi people are poor because Shanxi is backward, it is really wrong for Shanxi. Shanxi has always been rich, so has Shanxi after the reform and opening up. Unlike their predecessors who went westward and accumulated capital through hardships, it took Shanxi's contemporary rich less than 20 years to attract people from other parts of China. No secrets. The huge demand for resources in industrial society has created the rich class in Shanxi. In Shanxi, even in the poorest places, Mercedes-Benz and BMW with local license plates can be seen whizzing by. Most car owners are owners of coal mines or coking plants. Luxurious mounts, gorgeous houses and arrogant words all show their elegance. They are so different in this already riddled land. They can buy anything that matches their status, and they no longer have to worry about the cost of schooling for their children or medical treatment for their families like other people in their hometown. When wealth gathers in this small group of elites, they will not think that the resources they rely on to get rich will not be regenerated, that these resources originally belonged to other people living here, and that they should do something for the land that raised them. When wealth accumulated to a certain extent, they began to get tired of barren hills, polluted air, and eyes glazed over by poverty. As a result, in metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai or garden-like cities such as Suzhou and Hangzhou, the real estate belonging to Shanxi people has doubled, and the annual capital flowing out of Shanxi is as high as tens of billions of yuan. Sooner or later, these rich people in Shanxi who have moved their families or are moving will integrate into the local society, and eventually their descendants will no longer classify themselves as Shanxi people. No one wants to predict what Shanxi will be like at that time. But when even the people from Shanxi began to give up Shanxi, where was the hope in this yellow land with 3,000 years of ancient civilization?
The Yellow River has always been regarded as the cradle of the Chinese nation. Isn't Shanxi the mother waiting at the cradle? This mother, once radiant, is dying, without pity or love. I seem to see her thin figure, she is struggling to squeeze out perhaps the last bit of milk for her child, with tears in her eyes. Yes, she is crying, she is lost, silently. ...