In the Gannan revolutionary old area of Jiangxi Province, the region boasts not only cultural landmarks such as the "Red Capital" and the "Cradle of the Republic," but also industrial accolades like the "World Tungsten Capital" and the "Kingdom of Rare Earths." At the historic site of the Jiangkou Trade Branch of the Chinese Soviet Republic, situated at the confluence of the Gong and Ping Rivers in Ganzian District, Ganzhou City, visitors from across the country listen attentively to the heroic deeds of revolutionary martyrs, drawing inspiration and strength from their spirit.
"This site witnessed an economic breakthrough," said Huang Yun, head of the Publicity and Education Section of the Party History Research Office of the Ganzhou Municipal Party Committee. During the Agrarian Revolution period, the Kuomintang imposed a strict economic blockade on the Central Soviet Area, leaving supplies, medicine, and weapons in severe shortage. At this critical juncture, the Jiangkou Trade Branch leveraged the region's tungsten sand resources to forge external trade routes, exchanging tungsten sand for salt, cloth, medicine, and weapons. It undertook 70% of the Central Soviet Area's foreign trade, making significant contributions to supporting the revolutionary war and economic construction of the region.
Time has brought profound changes. Ninety years later, tungsten sand, once dubbed "black gold," is writing a new chapter of legend through the industrial revitalization of the old revolutionary area. The former Ganzian County, now upgraded to a district, has transformed into the "China Rare Earth Valley." More than ten national-level platforms, including the Ganjiang Innovation Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with 19 provincial-level platforms, have been established here. The rare earth new materials and application cluster has been included in the national advanced manufacturing cluster list. In the first half of this year, the tungsten industry in Ganzian District generated revenue of 11.168 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 190.69%.
Breaking through with technological innovation, entrepreneurs rooted in the red soil are carrying on the Long March spirit of self-reliance and hard struggle, forging into uncharted territory and opening new frontiers on the new economic track. "What we are on is a technological 'Long March,'" said He Pengyu, chairman of Ganzhou Haopengyou Technology Co., Ltd. In the early stages of entrepreneurship, the company resolutely abandoned the simple integration and assembly route, choosing instead to develop core algorithms and hardware through full-stack in-house research. They went deep into the mines of southern Ganzhou, conducting equipment debugging and iteration under harsh conditions. Today, the company can achieve intelligent and precise sorting across more than 40 mineral types, including copper, gold, iron, and tungsten, with several technologies breaking through foreign monopolies.
At an altitude of ten thousand meters, flights shuttle back and forth. On September 28 last year, with the opening of Ruijin Airport, a pattern of "one east, one west" was formed alongside Ganzhou Golden Airport, making Ganzhou one of the few prefecture-level cities in the country with two airports. In the low-altitude domain, new momentum is surging. Leveraging five national "firsts," including drone logistics pilot programs, industrial-grade drone wind tunnel laboratories, and ultra-large contiguous flight airspace, Nankang District is racing to seize the low-altitude economy track. "We have already attracted and cultivated 34 upstream and downstream enterprises in the low-altitude economy industry, forming a manufacturing system anchored by seven complete aircraft manufacturers such as Yifei Aviation, Mingde New Materials, and Jiangxi Tongyi Drone, supported by upstream and downstream companies like Lingji Propulsion and Yunmengshan Technology," said Li Yuan, a member of the special task force for the low-altitude economy industry in Nankang District.
At Baiheling in Longmu Township, Nankang District, the low-altitude economy is quietly transforming the lives and production of local farmers. Last June, Jiangxi Province's first "drone + high-speed rail" cross-city intermodal transport scenario was launched here, accelerating agricultural products from "the mountains" to "the dining table." "This area is at a high altitude with many mountain roads, and agricultural products used to be trapped deep in the mountains. Now the farm is 'swamped with orders' every day, and transportation is no longer a worry," said Liu Jialiang, leader of the shared high-mountain farm in Longmu Township.
Putting the people first, the Gannan old area in the new era is practicing the Long March spirit of seeking truth from facts and relying on the masses, rallying tremendous strength for building Chinese-style modernization. Nankang furniture is a local "grassroots industry" born from nothing. In the 1990s, a large number of Nankang carpenters returned from Guangdong, embarking on their dream journey with a plane and a small workshop. Today, empowered by the digital intelligence of the industrial internet, Nankang furniture has achieved a leapfrog upgrade from "traditional furniture manufacturing" to "modern smart home intelligent manufacturing," with the entire industry chain's revenue exceeding 290 billion yuan, unleashing a surging momentum of industrial clustering.
Gannan navel oranges are the "golden fruit" that has driven the old area's people out of poverty and toward prosperity. With support from national-level scientific research platforms such as the National Navel Orange Engineering Technology Research Center and the National Key Laboratory for Navel Orange Testing, the modern navel orange industry system is maturing. Last year, the planting area of Gannan navel oranges reached 1.9 million mu, with a total output of 2.1 million tons and a combined industrial cluster output value of 23.2 billion yuan, driving employment for one million rural laborers in the old area.
With an unwavering commitment over more than 90 years, the spirit endures. The industrial development path of the Gannan revolutionary old area is a journey of relentless breakthrough and transcendence. As the industrial map of the old area continues to expand and its industrial capacity rapidly ascends, Gannan is marching toward a new horizon of high-quality development, embarking on yet another new journey.
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