Benefits flow from river that nurtures

Editor's note: The development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, which covers 11 provincial regions whose combined GDP accounts for more than 40 percent of the country's total, is a key strategy for national development. Starting today, China Daily reporters traveling along the river will bring you stories of how local people are developing the economy while preserving this mother river.

Lijiang, a city in northwestern Yunnan province known for its beautiful scenery and unique culture of the Naxi ethnic group, has sought to integrate into the Yangtze River Economic Belt through green development, according to local officials.

The Jinsha River, as the upper stretches of the Yangtze River are known, runs through Lijiang, and this section, which is around 600 kilometers long, accounts for about one-tenth of the total length of the Yangtze.