Located on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, the Sanjiangyuan region in northwest China's Qinghai Province is the source of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers and is known as "the water tower of China."

Since the establishment of the Sanjiangyuan National Park in 2021, the ecological environment in the area has continued to improve. Its water conservation capacity has increased by more than 6 percent annually, and it delivers over 60 billion cubic meters of high-quality freshwater downstream every year, according to a newly released report on the park's development.

"As the ecosystem of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is rich and diverse but also fragile, strengthening ecological environment protection and maximizing ecological functions are the main tasks of the region," Chinese President Xi Jinping said during an inspection tour in Qinghai on Tuesday and Wednesday.

He called on the province to prioritize ecological conservation and green development, adhere to ethnic unity and common prosperity, and make greater progress in promoting ecological conservation and high-quality development of the plateau.

Advancing Qinghai-Xizang Plateau ecological conservation

In recent years, Qinghai has focused on ecological conservation, doubling its pollution prevention and control efforts and significantly improving the quality of the ecological environment.

There are around 606,000 water birds in Qinghai Lake, China's largest inland saltwater lake, and the number of Tibetan antelopes has rebounded from less than 20,000 in the last century to more than 70,000 today. The number of monitored snow leopards has now exceeded 1,200.

In 2023, the proportion of days with excellent ambient air quality in Qinghai was 96.6 percent. The rural domestic waste collection, transfer and disposal system coverage rate has reached 94.8 percent, and the rural domestic sewage treatment rate reached 19.9 percent.

Under the protection of a series of measures, the water conservation capacity in Sanjiangyuan shows continuous improvement. Meanwhile, the water quality of the mainstream basins of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers in the province has reached Grade II, the second-highest within the country's five-tier water assessment system.

During the inspection, Xi urged efforts to protect the Sanjiangyuan region and its biodiversity and improve water conservation capabilities. "Efforts must be made to prioritize ecological conservation and green development to build the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau into a highland of ecological civilization."

Ethnic unity and progress

Xi inspected Qinghai in 2016 and 2021, urging the province to write new chapters in building a pioneer zone for ethnic unity and progress.

With ethnic minorities making up nearly half of its population, Qinghai has the highest proportion of ethnic minority populations in the country.

To solve problems such as a shortage of teachers and low performance in rural schools and better meet the people's need for high-quality educational resources, Qinghai's Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture built a boarding school in the provincial capital, Xining. The school was funded and built with assistance from Shanghai, and it accommodates ethnic minority students from the pastoral areas in Golog.

The school has 800 students and 68 teachers, including seven teachers from Shanghai, and uses the country's unified teaching materials for all subjects.

In addition, the school makes annual trips to Shanghai and east China's Jiangsu Province to participate in exchanges and enhance the integration of students of all ethnic groups.

Visiting the school on Tuesday afternoon, Xi highlighted the notable achievements of the collaboration between the country's eastern and western regions, as well as paired assistance, particularly in education.

Focusing on forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, efforts must be made to promote all-round and extensive exchanges and the integration of all ethnic groups, he said.