Feature: Foreign journalists feel modernization in southwest China's mega city

BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's modernization process has made great strides with amazing development speed in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, reporters and media representatives from the Belt and Road countries and beyond have said.

During a field trip organized by the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA) in late August, nearly 100 representatives of journalist organizations and media outlets from 50 countries and regions gathered in Chongqing, where they got a firsthand experience of Chinese modernization and vigorous city growth.

As a significant transportation and logistics hub under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chongqing serves as a key hub of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, stretching to 523 ports in 124 countries and regions, connecting global trade networks via railways, sea routes and highways.

According to data from the coordination center for logistics and operation of the corridor, more than 30,000 China-Europe freight trains have run through the trade corridor. From 2019 to 2023, the annual freight volume through the trade corridor from Chongqing increased by 50, 45, 54, 32 and 21 percent year-on-year, respectively.

"It is far from what I expected and it's very mind-blowing. I am very impressed," Kirtan Bhana, director and editor of The Diplomatic Society, a media outlet in South Africa, told Xinhua regarding Chongqing as a logistics hub.

"In order to grow economy, find new markets and services and to exchange, countries have to open up to have the interactions and exchanges of knowledge and skills," he said, praising the Chinese wisdom of connecting with the world.

Some journalists were impressed by Chongqing's rapidly growing infrastructure and the fact that a large proportion of the city's construction is an adaptation of old buildings instead of complete demolition.

"To me, who was here ten years ago, the city has changed so much that it is almost unrecognizable, with skyscrapers, bridges, highways, and new subway lines. It's as if the city has been transformed over the past decade," said Moritz Nicolaus Lohmann, co-founder of "Hamburg Welcomes You" from Germany, adding that Germany can learn from Chongqing's reconstruction of deserted industrial areas into art and creativity zones.

At the 2024 Belt and Road Journalists Forum held in Chongqing on Saturday, representatives of BRI journalists associations also spoke highly of Chongqing's development, an epitome of China's modernization, lauding China's wisdom of modernization and common prosperity.

Yophiandi Kurniawan from Indonesia Cyber Media Network said he is deeply impressed by the local people's preservation of history and tradition, their efforts to achieve food security, and their commitment to protecting the ecosystem while advancing technological development.

"What I have seen has further proved my view that the Chinese government and people are on the right track for progress," he said.

At the opening ceremony of the forum, He Ping, chairman of ACJA, said in a keynote speech that news media should align with the trends of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefits, calling for joint efforts to construct new narrative frameworks and modes of expression that "transcend ideology, social systems and levels of development."

Attendants at the forum agreed that professionals in the media industry should continue to tell the stories of the Belt and Road cooperation as well as the joint development of China and the world.

"My renewed impression of China is not just admiration for the high pace of development, but also an understanding that this country sets the vector of the future for the whole world," said Timur Shafir, executive secretary of the international department of the Russian Union of Journalists.

"New approaches to development, peaceful interaction and innovation are being born here, which will determine the future not only of this country, but also of the whole world," he said.

"China is determined not only to achieve its goals, but also to create a common peaceful future where everyone can get their share of prosperity," he said.

Tania Georgieva Glouhtcheva, head of the international department of Bulgaria's DUMA Newspaper, echoed Shafir's remarks. "China is the best teacher when it comes to giving -- not only material things, but also millennial wisdom and good examples when it comes to politics and improving lives," she said.

"More and more countries and international organizations joined the (Belt and Road) initiative. Countless roads, railways, ports, airports, hospitals, schools -- the list is endless -- have been built. People from different continents are connected and enjoy a life they've never imagined," she said.

"The Solomon Islands can learn from the hard work, technology, and innovation of China and the Chinese people in terms of not competing with each other, but leading for a better future," said Elizabeth Sade, an executive member of the Media Association of Solomon Islands. "China has been giving a helping hand to other countries and small countries like the Solomon Islands to go forward," she said.