My interest in environmental issues began long before I came to China. I studied biological sciences because I wanted to better understand some of the most urgent challenges facing humanity, especially climate change, and to explore possible solutions. That was also why one idea in Xi Jinping: The Governance of China particularly resonated with me: building an ecological civilization.
The concept brings together two concerns that have long mattered to me — environmental protection and social development. Rather than treating economic growth and nature as opposing forces, it asks how development can improve people's lives while creating a more sustainable relationship between humanity and the environment.
China's rapid development once came with serious environmental costs. But in recent years, green development and the pursuit of higher-quality growth have become increasingly important priorities.
Environmental protection, renewable energy, reforestation and ecological restoration are now closely connected with broader development goals. As President Xi Jinping pointed out, "To protect the environment is to protect productivity, and to improve the environment is to boost productivity."
For me, however, these ideas became much more meaningful when I had the opportunity to see them in practice.
In 2025, I traveled to Shanxi while filming a documentary on sustainable development projects.
We visited several villages involved in rural revitalization initiatives. Some of the people in these communities had previously lived in extremely poor conditions or in areas at high risk of natural disasters, with limited access to electricity, internet, sanitation and other basic infrastructure. With government support, residents were relocated to safer housing, while new agricultural and ecological projects created opportunities for employment and income.
One farmer I spoke with told me that he only needed to pay 3,000 yuan ($444.85) for his new house, with the option of paying in installments over 20 years. At the time, he was working on a project to combat desertification by planting sea buckthorn, as part of a broader government effort to restore local ecosystems.
What impressed me was that the project did not stop with planting trees. We visited a nearby factory that produces sea buckthorn juice. The same plant being used to restore the local ecosystem had also become the foundation of a local industry, with its fruit sold across China and generating additional jobs and income for the community.
That experience helped me understand what integrated development can look like in practice. Environmental restoration was not being treated as an isolated ecological project, but as something connected to housing, employment, agriculture, local industry and improvements in people's living conditions.
During the trip, I met a farmer who had developed an innovative method of cultivating rice while raising crabs on land that had previously been infertile. With support from the government, including machinery, he was able to turn unproductive land into a sustainable and profitable system.
Along the way, I also observed wind and solar power infrastructure throughout the area, which helped provide electricity to local communities.
These experiences gave new meaning to another idea that had fascinated me while studying Chinese philosophy: harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.
Before visiting Shanxi, I understood the concept mainly as a philosophical principle. Seeing these projects made me realize how it can also speak to contemporary challenges. Ecological restoration, renewable energy, rural development and improved livelihoods were not treated as separate goals, but as interconnected priorities pursued together.
This was when the idea of ecological civilization became much more tangible to me.
Reading about environmental governance can explain its broader vision, but visiting these communities showed me what that vision can look like in everyday life: a family moving into safer housing, a farmer finding new work by restoring degraded land, or a local agricultural product becoming the basis of a new industry.
I hope that, in the future, more countries can explore development paths that bring environmental protection and human well-being closer together.
Every society has its own history and conditions, so there can be no single formula. But the broader aspiration behind ecological civilization — the search for a more sustainable relationship between humanity, development and nature — has relevance far beyond China.
For me, Shanxi transformed that aspiration from an idea in a book into something I could see with my own eyes.
Written by Gabriel Valdetaro, a Brazilian scholar and content creator who has lived in China for three years. He is currently a PhD candidate in political science at Tsinghua University in Beijing, focusing on China-Latin America relations, global governance and sustainable development.
