Small grapes bring about big changes, boosting the all-round development of the autonomous region

With its profound cultural connotations and hidden artistic value, wine is popular all over the world and enjoys a worldwide reputation. Ningxia is a rising "new star" in the global wine fraternity.

President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of the Ningxia wine industry and places high hopes on it. He made important instructions and put forward clear requirements for the industry during his two visits to Ningxia.

He stressed that with the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the wine industry has great prospects. He urged Ningxia to improve its technical level, increase the cultural connotations of its wine, strengthen its publicity and promotion work, build its own famous brands, and enhance the added value and comprehensive benefits of the industry.

President Xi's important instructions have pointed out the direction, injected impetus and increased confidence for us to promote the high-quality development of Ningxia's wine industry.

We are faithfully putting President Xi's instructions into practice. Ningxia always bears in mind President Xi's earnest instructions and is grasping the opportunity to promote high-quality development of its wine industry.

It has obtained the central authorities' approval to establish the Ningxia National Open Development Comprehensive Pilot Zone for the Grape and Wine Industry, the first of its kind in the country, and successfully held the China (Ningxia) International Wine Culture and Tourism Expo, the first national-level wine expo. Moreover, wine products from Helan Mountain have been selected as the first batch of 100 geographical indication items in China, the International Organization of Vine and Wine named Ningxia as the "wine capital of the world" and the Global Wine Tourism Organization designated Ningxia a "global wine tourism destination".

It is fair to say that Ningxia wine has set foot on the "fast track" of pursuing the "purple dream", and with the "acceleration" provided by the "purple juice", the wine industry has become the "new engine" to support the construction of a beautiful new Ningxia. The world wine industry has agreed that Ningxia represents the future of Chinese wine.

"Small grapes" make a "big industry" with unlimited prospects. Although the history of Ningxia's wine industry is not long, the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain is located in the "golden zone" of latitude 38 degrees north, and at the "golden altitude" of about 1,100 meters, Ningxia is recognized as a "golden belt" for producing high-end wine due to the large difference between its day and night temperatures, high coefficient of water and heat, and good soil permeability.

With the nourishment of the Yellow River, the care of Helan Mountain, and careful nurturing, after 36 years of cultivation, improvement of technologies and hard work, the former Gobi Desert at the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain has now become a hot land for investment and business development, which has created the elegant and magnificent oriental style and Chinese characteristics of Ningxia wine.

In particular, the Ningxia authorities have established the wine industry as one of the most desirable and characteristic industries. Great significance has been attached to giving full play to the advantages of the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain and making the mountain a well-known brand of wine products. Ningxia adheres to the integrated operation of wineries, the development of distinctive wines of different wineries, the regional layout of wine industry, industrialization promotion and market-oriented development, so that it can continuously lengthen and strengthen the whole industrial chain, and promote the deep integration of the wine industry and cultural tourism, leisure and health, trade and logistics and e-commerce. According to Ningxia's plan for the industry, by 2025, the total scale of the wineries will reach 1 million mu (66,667 hectares), the annual output of high-quality wine will be more than 300 million bottles, and the comprehensive output value will be 100 billion yuan ($14.49 billion).

It is the vibrant vitality of the Ningxia wine industry that has attracted a large number of domestic and foreign famous wine enterprises, such as Hennessy, Pernod Ricard, COFCO, Changyu and Great Wall, to Ningxia.

At present, the wine grape planting area at the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain in Ningxia has reached 525,000 mu, accounting for nearly one-third of that of the whole country. There are 228 wineries with an annual output of 130 million bottles of wine. Ningxia attracts more than 1.2 million visitors for tourism and research into the wine industry every year, and the comprehensive industrial output value exceeds 30 billion yuan. There is no doubt that it has become the largest contiguous wine grape producing area in China. Ningxia wine industry has broad prospects and infinite potential, and now is the right time to develop the wine industry in the region.

"Small grapes" drive "big innovation". Ningxia's wine industry is prospering with the help of science and technology, and is competitive because of innovation. In the early stage of the development of its wine industry, Ningxia tried to copy the planting methods of others and transplant the wine-making methods of others, hoping that by using the brewing technology of others and borrowing the development model of others, it could do so. But the good local conditions did not produce good wine using this approach. Ningxia's wine was not competitive in the market.

Now we are deeply aware that good wine is not only created from good grapes but also advanced brewing technology and scientific management. Only by injecting scientific and technological strength into the grapery, adding innovative elements into the brewing workshop, and forming its own characteristics in the production process can Ningxia wine win its position in the market to prompt the Chinese wine to turn from a follower of foreign brands to a respectable challenger and then a leader in this competitive industry.

In recent years, based on the reality of Ningxia, we have made remarkable progress in seedlings, planting management, brewing technology, product deployment, aging wine storage and transportation, quality supervision and other key links.

We will continuously strengthen talent introduction and training, establish innovation platforms and solve key problems in core technologies. Ningxia has established three wine professional colleges and four key laboratories so as to form a national base for high-quality wine grape planting and breeding, and continuously improve its own breeding system and technical standards for brewing. It focuses on developing unique and diverse wine products, and establishing digital and intelligent wineries.

The wine grape planting technologies developed by Ningxia such as shallow clear ditch, inclined shelf, deep fertilization, unified pests and disease prevention and high-efficiency water-saving irrigation have been promoted throughout the country. Now, the autonomous region supplies grape breed seedlings to the whole country. It can be said that Ningxia has firmly gripped the core know-how of the industry in its own hands, and made science and technology the wings with which to lift the nation's wine industry.

With innovation and development, the wine industry in Ningxia is now booming. Grapes are becoming "purple" because of innovation, bottles of fine wine are becoming "popular" because of innovation, and wineries are becoming "competitive" because of innovation. Wines from Ningxia have won thousands of awards in the four top international wine competitions-in Decanter, Brussels, Paris and Berlin－and ranked first in the medal table of China, winning more than 60 percent of the total number of medals the country's winemakers have grabbed. The wine of the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain in Ningxia have really tasted the sweetness of innovation.

The "small grapes" have promoted the formation of a big "green ecology". Wine is a purple dream, but also a green hope. When inspecting vineyards at the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain, President Xi stressed that Ningxia should combine the development of the wine industry with the management of the Yellow River beach area and ecological restoration.

We try to deeply understand the important guiding spirit of President Xi's instructions, and take the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain as the "experimental field" to practice the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets". We regard the wine industry as a leading industry and green industry endowed to Ningxia in its efforts to build a pilot zone for ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin.

Ningxia has done a good job on "wine plus ecology", and included the wine grape base at the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain in key ecological protection and restoration projects that it supports. The autonomous region has built a 195-kilometer wine grape cultivation corridor, and has turned abandoned land into wineries, and 10,000 mu of wasteland into grapery oases, and grape parks into flood arrest and water storage areas.

Ningxia has realized the organic integration of wine with ecological restoration, environmental protection and pollution control, and is walking on a road of high-quality development featuring the overall coordination of resource utilization and ecological governance, the joint promotion of economic development and environmental protection, and the mutual transformation of "lucid waters and lush mountains" with "valuable assets".

At present, the long grape planting corridor in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain is lush and picturesque. The planting bases are green and the characteristic wineries are dotted here and there. "Gardens form squares and forests form a network". It not only builds a green ecological barrier for regional climate improvement, water and soil conservation of the Yellow River and an ecological conservation screen, but also restores the habitats of wild animals and plants. The snow leopards that disappeared in the 1950s have been seen again on Helan Mountain. The numbers of wild rock sheep, red deer and other populations of animals have all increased significantly, and green ecology has become the happy background color of the wine producing area in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain.

The "small grapes" have promoted "great opening-up" featuring internal and external linkages. As a universal "cultural language" of the world, wine is the best "image ambassador" to promote Ningxia.

Based on the goal of "building the national-level wine industry and highlighting its internationalization characteristics", we regard the wine industry as an important starting point to serve the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and for promoting the internal and external development of Ningxia. We use wine as the medium and pivot to tell the story of Ningxia, use the Ningxia National Open Development Comprehensive Pilot Zone for the Grape and Wine Industry and China (Ningxia) International Wine Culture and Tourism Expo as the platforms and carriers to spread the voice of Ningxia, and actively integrate and connect with the international market. The purpose is to promote Ningxia wine and wine culture, to "go out" and "introduce" to the world Ningxia's advanced concepts, technologies and models of wine.

As the popularity and influence of Ningxia wines have spread, a large number of merchants from all over the country have became associated with Ningxia and its wine, and many friends at home and abroad regard Ningxia as their "second hometown" because of its wine. At present, Ningxia has increasingly frequent economic and trade exchanges with domestic and foreign countries, increasingly close personnel exchanges, and is constantly expanding its field of cooperation, upgrading the level of its cooperation, and innovating the mode of its cooperation. Wine products from Ningxia have been exported to more than 40 countries and regions. Wine has become a "purple calling card" for Ningxia to talk to the world and the world to know Ningxia. Ningxia's circle of friends for opening-up and cooperation has become bigger and bigger, and its international influence has been enhanced.

The "small grapes" also contribute to the improvement of people's livelihoods by boosting their income. The wine industry is not only the characteristic industry of Ningxia, but also a booster of people's income. As Ningxia's main resettlement area for migrants, the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain are home to 1.23 million migrants who moved from the harsh mountainous areas. With the development and expansion of the wine industry, the vast number of immigrants are increasingly involved in and benefit from it. They can increase their income by growing grapes, transferring land, and working in the vineyard on their doorstep. A joint production mechanism has been formed featuring collaboration between farmers and cooperation between farmers and enterprises. As such, the wine industry has truly built a "bridge" between entrepreneurship and employment, produced a "cash cow" enabling farmers to get rich, and integrated the dream of making farmers rich and rural vitalization. The wine industry has undoubtedly played an important role in consolidating and expanding the achievements of the poverty alleviation campaign and promoting comprehensive rural vitalization. Ningxia's wine industry is now closely linked to the "money bags" of its residents. Each year, it creates 130,000 jobs for local residents and about 1 billion yuan ($144.9 million) in income for them. One-third of migrants' income comes from the wine industry now. It is through the wine industry that people have increased their incomes and improved their livelihoods, and the "small grapes" have helped build the road to a moderately well-off life for the people.

The wine industry in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain in Ningxia is in the ascendant and ready for future development. We will always follow the direction President Xi has pointed out and forge ahead, further improve our product features, expand the producing area, and strengthen the Ningxia brand and boost industrial support. We will strive to build Ningxia into a globally renowned "wine city", so that Ningxia's "purple dream" can bloom around the world, and let Chinese wine "surprise the world".

The author is secretary of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China.