70 years on: Zhoushan's transformative changes

The past 70 years have seen dramatic changes in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province.

The city was liberated by the People's Liberation Army on May 17, 1950. In January 1987, the State Council, China's cabinet, approved the establishment of Zhoushan city.

In June 2010, the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area was approved by the State Council. It is the fourth State-level New Area after Pudong New Area in Shanghai, Binhai New Area in Tianjin and Liangjiang New Area in Chongqing.

In April 2017, the China (Zhejiang) Free Trade Pilot Zone was inaugurated in the city.

Poor traffic conditions were the main reason behind Zhoushan's slow economic growth. However, the situation started to change with the opening of the Zhoushan-Ningbo Cross-sea Bridge in 2009.

The city's connectivity with the mainland is expected to improve further as its first railway line was approved by the provincial government earlier this year. The 27-billion-yuan ($3.91 billion) Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway spans 77 kilometers.

Zhoushan presently has 53 ports with a total area of 1,344.8 square kilometers. Its first port was built in 1986.

In September 2015, the Ningbo Zhoushan port commenced operations. To date, the port has opened 250 routes connecting the city to more than 600 ports worldwide, with its cargo throughput ranking first in the world.

Meanwhile, Zhoushan's petrochemical industry is also flourishing. The Zhejiang FTZ has gathered 4,797 oil enterprises to date. Seven out of the top 10 oil and gas companies in the world have established offices in the city. Zhoushan's supply of bonded fuel oil also tops the nation and is ranked among the top 10 in the world.

The city's other industries such as marine fishing, shipbuilding and tourism have also been growing.

In 2019, Zhoushan received 70.518 million visitors and generated 105.46 billion yuan in tourism revenue, a yearly growth of 11.6 percent and 11.9 percent respectively.