Village fostered new philosophy of development

Recasting of relationship between growth, environmental protection still resonates

More than two decades ago, Yucun, a village in Anji county of East China's Zhejiang province, was known for what locals called the "stone economy". Quarrying and cement production brought income and once made Yucun one of Anji's better-off villages, but the prosperity came at a heavy environmental cost: Hills stripped bare, waterways polluted and the air thick with dust.

Yucun began shutting down its quarries, a decision that sharply reduced village income. The choice that the village faced was stark: Keep quarrying, or seek a different future — one built around ecological restoration.

At that crossroads, Xi Jinping, then Party secretary of Zhejiang province, visited the village in August 2005. After hearing briefings from local officials, he endorsed the shutdown as a wise move and said growth should not come at the expense of the environment, because such growth is not development.