Young Party chief restores Zaozhuang
CNN Travel ranks it among China's five most beautiful water towns.
"Despite the small size, Tai'erzhuang has a number of traditional temples, waterways and museums," CNN Travel says.
Chen explains: "We gave up the real estate project but gained a priceless cultural legacy."
Since the reconstruction, Zaozhuang's tourism sector has grown 16.5 percent year-on-year to generate 11.16 billion yuan. More than 80 percent of residents who got new jobs last year work in tourism.
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"But you can't be a good mayor by only developing tourism," Chen says. He's also pushing the city to develop coal processing. "We're changing coal into materials used in value-added products like acetic acid," Chen says. "Our production uses a recycling system to ensure no waste is discharged into the environment."
He has been changing the economic composition in other ways.
The cement industry contributes 3 percent to Zaozhuang's GDP but consumes 25 percent of its energy. Chen closed nearly all of the energy-intensive facilities and developed emerging industries like coal processing.
These emerging industries use only 10 percent of the energy cement consumes. The city has invested more than 60 billion yuan in the coal-chemistry sector.
This investment seems poised to pay off in three years, Chen says.
Zaozhuang's new economy has attracted investors. Each of the city's 303 projects under construction has an investment of over 100 million yuan. They include new energy and chemicals.
But Chen isn't merely a technocrat. He wrote the song Reluctant to Say Goodbye about the town. And he enjoys reading Ai Qing's poemI Love This Land.
The poem says: "Why are tears always in my eyes? It's because I love this land so much."
Chen says: "Zaozhuang is a city where I realize my dreams. I love the city with all my heart."
