If Yingtan wants to achieve development, I think it can’t do without two directions. One is industrial upgrading and transformation, and the other is being merged. There is no third way to achieve great development.

We know that Yingtan is now a prefecture-level city in Jiangxi, but it has been a prefecture-level city for a very short time, less than 40 years ago. After liberation, Yingtan was a town, part of what is now Guixi City, and was called Guixi County at that time. Later, probably in the late 1950s, it was upgraded to a county-level town and belonged to Shangrao Prefecture. Then it was upgraded to a county-level city in 1979, and then to a prefecture-level city in 1983.

Yingtan has a small land area (more than 3,500 square kilometers, which is only equivalent to one county) and a very small population (about 1.2 million), which can only be regarded as the last in Jiangxi Province. But he has two unique advantages. This is also the reason why it can become a prefecture-level city.

First, its transportation advantages. Yingtan is the starting point of the Ying-Xiamen Railway. This railway may not be very famous now, but before the reform and opening up, it was an important channel connecting Fujian, a frontier position, with Jiangxi, and it was the most important channel.

The second is its industrial status. Although Yingtan’s GDP today is less than 100 billion yuan, it is the location of the smelter of Jiangxi Copper Group, the only Fortune 500 company in Jiangxi. Guixi Smelter is located in today's Yingtan City.

As for his future development potential, objectively speaking, I don’t think there is much potential. A very important factor is that the area is too small. A prefecture-level city only covers an area of ??3,500 square kilometers. Even compared with many developed cities in the Yangtze River Delta, this area seems quite small. Besides, he is not located in a plain area.

In fact, this problem is not only common in Pingxiang and Xinyu. The latter two cities also became prefecture-level cities due to economic reasons and industrial development. Pingxiang is because of coal mines, and Xinyu is because of steel. To be honest, these heavy industries have no development potential in the future.

For prefecture-level cities like these, which are very small and very dependent on one industry, there are only two ways to go in the future. One is industrial upgrading and transformation, and the other is being merged.

Yingtan is a small city in Jiangxi Province, with a land area of ??approximately 3556.7 square kilometers and a permanent population of approximately 1.17 million. It is the smallest prefecture-level city in Jiangxi with the smallest population. Yingtan got its name from the "ripples swirling in it and the eagles dancing on it". It is famous at home and abroad for its beautiful Danxia, ??Taoism, Ancient Yue's splendid song, Yin and Yang, Jiaoshan ancient pottery kiln culture, Guiguzi culture, Taoism culture , Xinxue culture, ancient Yue culture, and red culture complement each other here.

Although Yingtan is a small city, it is a relatively wealthy prefecture-level city in Jiangxi. In 2018, Yingtan's GDP was 81.9 billion yuan, ranking last in the province, but its per capita GDP reached 71,400 yuan, ranking third in the province after Nanchang and Xinyu, and higher than the national average.

Yingtan is the choke point from Jiangxi to Fujian. Within the territory, there are Shanghai-Kunming High-speed Railway, Yingxia Line, Zhejiang-Ganxi Line, Anhui-Jiangxi Line, Shanghai-Kunming Expressway, Ji-Guang Expressway, National Highway 320, National Highway 206, etc. Kilometers, railways, expressways, and high-speed railways are intertwined with each other, and the transportation infrastructure is relatively developed. It is an important transportation hub city in Jiangxi.

Yingtan’s economy is mainly based on metal smelting and processing, chemical raw materials, chemical products, etc. It is one of the important production bases for copper processing in the country. Tourism is also one of the important pillar industries in Yingtan. In the future, Yingtan will fully rely on Jiangxi Copper Group to implement "innovation" and "doubling" operations to build a world copper capital. At the same time, it will create a new global tourism pattern focusing on Taoist health care and cultural tourism. The development potential is still relatively large.

Development potential is not fixed forever. The so-called potential is potential energy, which has its particularity and era.

Although Yingtan is one of the "Four Small Cities" in Jiangxi, it has the smallest population and jurisdiction area. In today's era, urbanization still relies on population and land area dividends, and Yingtan's transportation advantages are slowly being equalized or even surpassed. In a sense, Yingtan's stamina is indeed too insufficient. However, everything is not a panacea. To analyze whether a city has development potential, we must take into account all factors, including the urban pattern, regional pattern, own advantages, etc. of the province.

So, what opportunities and potential does Yingtan have?

1. Make full use of the opportunity of Yingtan being listed as a pilot area for urban-rural integrated development by the state to create urban-rural integration in Yingtan.

With the support of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, Yingtan was listed as an urban-rural integrated development pilot area by the country. It is the only city in Jiangxi selected. The reason is that Yingtan, as a small city, has its own unique advantages. With the withdrawal of counties from Yujiang County and the establishment of districts, Yingtan has become the first prefecture-level city that does not have jurisdiction over a county. It only manages one county-level city, Guixi City. The National Urban-Rural Integrated Development Pilot Zone is to use the advantageous platform provided by the state to integrate various resource elements in the region to create urban-rural integration and find a path that is different from other major cities.

2. Implement an all-region integrated development model.

Integrating the whole region, that is, the integrated development, integrated planning and construction of counties, cities and districts within the jurisdiction, is also difficult for large cities to achieve. The advantage of a small city is that it is flexible, and the government is more efficient in managing the lower levels.

Yingtan’s current goal and task is to integrate the entire region, from tourism, ecological management and control to social management, and ultimately achieve regionalization of the entire region.

Third, expand industry.

Industry is an important symbol of urbanization and the blood of the national economy. Yingtan's industry is not at a disadvantage in the province, but rather at an advantage. Yingtan High-tech Zone and Guixi Economic Development Zone are both among the top ten industrial zones in the province. In this regard, some big cities cannot compare. Yingtan makes full use of the cooperation framework agreement between Jiangxi Copper and Yingtan, and uses the leading role of important factories such as Guixi Smelter to make the industry bigger and stronger.

In our traditional understanding of potential, we often think about how to make the city bigger, how to increase the population, how to increase GDP, and how to rise in the ranking of national X-tier cities. It is true that these data are "hard indicators" for regional central cities in the province such as Nanchang, Jiujiang, and Ganzhou, but it is impossible for every province to allow all cities to follow the path of "big and comprehensive", and they will be withdrawn if their GDP cannot be increased. Merging into the big market next door is a rough and rough understanding model. In a region with tens of thousands of square kilometers of land, if all the small cities are removed and the center of the big city is retained, it is impossible to take care of all regional development. Jiangxi's urbanization is not high or even backward, so prefecture-level cities are relatively beneficial in driving the development of surrounding areas.

What development potential does Jiangxi Yingtan have? Regarding this issue, Yingtan in Jiangxi Province still has great development potential. Yingtan is still in the middle and upper reaches of Jiangxi, ranking third per capita. Yingtan’s industrial level is also very strong. Guixi City also ranks third among county-level cities in the province. Third, Guixi Copper Smelter is also the largest enterprise in the province. Yingtan still has great advantages in economic development, especially in terms of tourism. It has the birthplace of Chinese Taoism, Longhu Mountain, Shangqing Palace, and Yingtan Special Station. High-speed rail, regular rail, highways, and water transportation are all connected in all directions. Yingtan still has great potential for development.

Geographically, Yingtan faces the three deltas of the Yangtze River, the Pearl River, and southern Fujian. It is the largest and closest hinterland of the Haixi Economic Zone and the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone in the central part. In addition, Yingtan is also the first city in northeastern Jiangxi to undertake the transfer of industries from the southeastern coast. The geographical location is very advantageous and it is one of the important channels connecting the mainland to the southeast coast, so it has great potential for development in the future. Some people may be concerned, among the districts and counties under Yingtan's jurisdiction, which one has the most development potential? I think it’s Yu Jiang. Why are you so optimistic about Yujiang’s future development? Let us first understand the development status of Yujiang. Yujiang District, located in the northeastern part of Jiangxi Province, has an area of ??936 square kilometers and a permanent population of about 400,000. It governs 7 towns, 5 townships, and 7 farmlands. The government office is on Yingnan Avenue, Dengbu Town. No. 1.

It should play the role of logistics transfer and undertake the role of logistics transfer in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Fujian economy and other regions.

Yingtan will usher in great development if a few more counties are added!

Yingtan’s development positioning cannot be explained clearly in one or two sentences. It should be considered from the current situation, history, industry, region, transportation, humanities, science and education, comprehensive urban competitiveness, national, provincial and municipal development positioning and other aspects.

What should we look for in this development? If it is tourism, then basically nothing will happen. But this is still the railway age after all, and Yingtan is a city brought by trains, so it will still develop. It's just a matter of whether it develops quickly or not.

Besides, Yingtan now is different from Yingtan Dayong a few years ago. I am now studying outside, and yes, I feel that Yingtan has changed even when I go home.

My great Eagle Empire!

Yingtan is a city brought by railways. It has always been an important transportation center from northern and central China to the south. However, since the opening of the Beijing-Kowloon Line, Yingtan's transportation status has dropped significantly and is not as good as before. Therefore, if Yingtan wants to develop, it must find new ways to tap other economic potentials.