Datong in North China's Shanxi province has achieved a significant amount of social and economic development in 2021.

The city's gross domestic product, or GDP, increased 7.5 percent year-on-year to 168.6 billion yuan ($26.68 billion). 

Industrial transformation

The construction of a modern industrial system – based on coal power and supported by big data, new materials, equipment manufacturing and modern medicine – was accelerated last year. 

The added value of the service industry reached 86.77 billion yuan, driving GDP growth of 4.1 percentage points.

Grain output in 2021 reached 1.26 million metric tons, while agricultural product processing  revenue reached 15.4 billion yuan, up 24 percent year-on-year.

Opening-up

The city's imports and exports in 2021 were worth 6.97 billion yuan, surging 74.9 percent year-on-year, with a growth rate ranking it first in Shanxi.

The Datong Yungang Airport passed its provincial inspection and the city's international land port bonded logistics center opened a land-sea intermodal logistics channel with Tianjin Port, helping to attract 57 cross-border e-commerce companies to settle there.

Coordinated development of urban, rural areas

Datong promoted the protection and restoration of Datong Ancient City, as well as reportedly making great progress in the restoration of historical and cultural blocks. The construction of 27 roads was accelerated, while two high-end brand hotels – Ahn Luh Resorts & Residences and Hyatt – were introduced.

Datong completed the environment upgrading of 500 villages, renovated 18,400 rural household toilets and constructed 469 kilometers of rural roads and the Great Wall No 1 tourist road.

Environmental, ecological improvements

Datong completed the coal-to-electricity clean heating renovation of 240,000 households and carried out comprehensive air pollution controls in fall and winter, with the number of days in 2021 with excellent and good air quality reaching 315.

It took measures to promote ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin, with more than 200 million cubic meters of water supplied to the national capital, Beijing. 

In addition, the city carried out land greening to improve the local ecology. 

People's living standards

Datong introduced several competitive enterprises, which settled in the city last year, creating over 6,000 jobs and attracting a large number of young people to come and work in the city. 

The city built 32 kindergartens and 22 rural boarding schools to improve the local basic education infrastructure. It also introduced an internet vocational and technical college and applied for three vocational colleges.

Datong also renovated old communities covering 739,000 square meters and built 2,342 new urban apartments. 

Furthermore, the local social security system was further improved, while the subsistence of vulnerable groups in need was guaranteed.