The Yellow River flows through Ordos. [Photo provided to investordos.goinnermongolia.com.cn]

The Yellow River, the mother river of the Chinese nation, after flowing through the territory of Ordos in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, is pulled out like a bow winding through several grand bends. 

In Ordos, the Yellow River nestles in the desert and shakes hands with the grassland, creating magnificent scenery.

"When the Yellow River does not flood, the world is at peace". This old Chinese saying was deeply felt by Ordos, where the ecosystem had once long been fragile. 

Located in the Loess Plateau, Ordos once faced significant erosion during flood seasons, with the rain washing a large amount of sediment into the Yellow River. 

This led to siltation, and riverbed elevation over millennia of interplay between river and plateau, and created 10 primary tributaries of the Yellow River, known as the "Shida Kongdui" region. 

Flowing from south to north through Ordos' Kubuqi Desert and alluvial plains, the 10 tributaries deposit about 27 million metric tons of sediment into the Yellow River annually, severely impacting the river's ecosystem and regional development stability.

Rectification and governance are urgent priorities. In order to regulate the water-sediment relationship and ensure the safety of the Yellow River, Ordos has carried out comprehensive management of the "Shida Kongdui" region – developing tailored strategies for each tributary and short and medium-term governance plans.

This approach combines natural restoration with artificial management, engineering measures with biological methods and governance protection with development and utilization to achieve a dual decrease in both the area and intensity of soil erosion. 

Today, the comprehensive management of the "Shida Kongdui" region has become a national benchmark for soil erosion control, with the erosion area decreasing from 71,159 square kilometers in 1995 to 33,818 sq km in 2021, a reduction of 52.5 percent. 

In 2023, as part of the "important ecological security barrier in northern China", Ordos has promoted the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and sands and established a value realization mechanism for ecological products with Ordos characteristics. 

The city strives to achieve "green and rich prosperity" through the new green development path.      

In the 1990s, with the upsurge of resource development, coal became extremely important to the economy and life in Ordos. As a result, a large number of "small, scattered and unregulated" enterprises flooded in. Thick smoke soon billowed over the city, darkening the skies.

In order to protect and improve the atmospheric environment, prevent and control air pollution, protect public health, develop an ecological civilization and promote sustainable economic and social development, Ordos acted. 

It formulated and issued the "Ordos Air Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations" in 2019, which regards air pollution as a must-solve problem in ecological construction.

In the process of governance, Ordos started from traditional industries with high pollution, high energy consumption and high resource consumption.

It eliminated all high-energy-consuming enterprises that did not adhere to industrial policy in Ordos and implemented the fully closed powder material yard and the ultra-low emission transformation of power plants and coal chemical enterprises.

This promoted the adjustment of the industrial structure and the raising of the industrial level, in exchange for blue skies and white clouds. 

At the same time, in terms of the prevention and control of water pollution, Ordos has achieved the full collection and treatment of industrial sewage and the water quality compliance rate of urban centralized drinking water sources has reached 100 percent. 

In terms of the prevention and control of soil pollution, the classification of soil environmental quality in the city has been completed and the safe utilization rate of polluted plots is now 100 percent.

From lush "Kangbashi green" when viewed from a distance to intoxicating "Ordos blue" when you look up and refreshing "good Chinese air" when you close your eyes and breathe in... this is the ecological well-being shared by the Ordos people.