East China's Shandong province will promote environmental protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, according to the government work report delivered on Jan 18 at the third session of the 13th Shandong Provincial People's Congress.

Shandong will follow an environment-first policy, including through green development, to strengthen comprehensive protection of the Yellow River Basin.

The third session of the 13th Shandong Provincial People's Congress commences in Jinan on Jan 18. [Photo/iqilu.com]

It will launch measures and projects to advance water resource conservation, mitigation of soil erosion, comprehensive treatment of air pollution and treatment of polluted soil along the Yellow River.

It will carry out a project to restore the wetland ecosystem in the Yellow River Delta.

The province will also ramp up efforts to strengthen the leading role of the city clusters in the Shandong Peninsula to enable the coordinated development of cities along the Yellow River.

According to the government report, Shandong will launch a project to deal with the protection of cultural heritage along the river, and develop a Yellow River culture and tourism belt with international influence.

The Yellow River empties its bright yellow waters into the deep blue Bohai Sea in Dongying, Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Yellow River, known as China's "Mother River" and the cradle of early Chinese civilization, runs through nine provinces and autonomous regions. It empties into the Bohai Sea in Dongying, Shandong province.

The Yellow River Basin sustains a population of 420 million people, or 30.3 percent of the nation's total, and a GDP of 2.39 trillion yuan ($343 billion), or 26.5 percent of the national total, as of the end of 2018.