An infovideo on some key facts about the Yangtze River Delta region (video/InZhejiang)

The Yangtze River Delta is an economic powerhouse of modern China. The delta, roughly the size of Germany, encompasses Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui.

The area is home to 15 percent of China's population and contributes roughly a quarter of the country's GDP. It also contributed more than a third of its foreign trade and investment in 2019, with a value of 11.24 trillion yuan ($1.58 trillion).

Four years ago, President Xi Jinping announced that China would support the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region, making this a national strategy. He instructed that the new development philosophy should be implemented in earnest.

Since then, coordinated development has gradually taken shape in the delta, with roads that used to end at provincial borders being connected and new bridges built on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Coordinated policies have been introduced to ease talent mobility and business in the region, and guidelines unifying construction and environmental protection standards have been brought in.

Taking Zhejiang as an example, in recent years, Zhejiang has been pushing forward the integrated development of the YRD region by strengthening transportation connectivity. In cooperation with Jiangsu, Anhui, and Shanghai, Zhejiang is building interprovincial roads and rail lines, forming world-class clusters of ports and airports, and integrating the management of transportation services.

At sea, a 16-billion-yuan ($2.3 billion) island-connecting highway is being built in Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang and is expected to begin operating next year. The provincial government is currently negotiating with Shanghai authorities to span the highway across Hangzhou Bay, aiming to boost land transport between Shanghai Port and Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the world's first and fourth largest ports by container throughput, respectively. In the future, the YRD region will become home to the longest island-connecting highway and the largest cluster of cross-sea bridges in the world.

The Yangtze River Delta is rising to be a megalopolis area of common prosperity and the bellwether of China's development. 

Editor: Ye Ke

Video: Ye Ke