Chinese policy bank increases ecological support in Yellow River

Photo taken on Feb. 9, 2022 shows the scenery of the frozen Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River in Jixian County, north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo by Lyu Guiming/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The China Development Bank, one of the country's primary policy banks, granted 149.6 billion yuan (23.57 billion U.S. dollars) in loans to support ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin in 2021.

Of the total, the bank has issued 17.3 billion yuan of loans to support the vital areas of environmental protection, such as water security and comprehensive treatment of the river, it said.

The bank provided loans worth 132.3 billion yuan to shore up infrastructure construction and weak links in people's livelihood in provincial regions along the river.

The Yellow River is the second-longest river in China, measuring 5,464 km in length. It runs through nine provincial regions, including Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong.

The Yellow River basin is a significant ecological barrier and is considered strategic for China's national development and modernization.