Hunan's Best — Achievement Transformation and Industrial Support (Part 3)
Located by Dongting Lake, Huasheng Dongma is Asia's largest ramie textile enterprise, known for technological innovation. It has completed over 20 independent innovation projects, with four new products filling domestic gaps and reaching international leading levels. Using its research results, it has developed printed fabrics such as "Tang Dynasty Memory," "Memory Silk," and "Ramie-Bamboo Bright Silk."
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Huasheng Dongma, located by the shore of Dongting Lake, is Asia's largest ramie textile enterprise and has long been known for technological innovation. Huasheng Dongma has more than 20 independent innovation projects, with 4 new products filling domestic gaps and reaching internationally leading levels. Now Huasheng Dongma, using scientific research achievements, has developed 5 new fabrics, including "Memory of the Prosperous Tang" printed fabric, "Memory Silk," and "Ramie-Bamboo Bright Silk," all of which were rated as "China Popular Fabrics" at the "2009 China International Textile Fabrics Expo."
Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements of Hunan Agricultural University
The transformation and promotion of scientific and technological achievements has long been a weak link troubling China, hovering around 20% for a long time. In recent years, however, Hunan Agricultural University has achieved a transformation rate of over 95% for applied scientific and technological achievements, and over 64% for combined basic and applied achievements.
Entering the 21st century, rural China's call for agricultural science and technology grew ever stronger, yet most agricultural research achievements remained locked behind campus or institute gates. To change this situation, Hunan Agricultural University formulated a policy of staying close to "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers," bringing science and technology to the countryside, and accelerating the transformation of achievements through such activities.
It was precisely this concept of staying close to "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" that drove the university's research achievement transformation to fuel the creation and development of several nationally renowned brands in Hunan Province. Qidong daylily, Jinhao camellia oil, Tangrenshen meat products, Lameizi series products, and others formed a brand cluster effect with a total output value of nearly 5 billion yuan, contributing to guiding farmers in increasing income, escaping poverty, and developing the local economy of Hunan. The university was also hailed as the institution most closely integrated with Hunan's economy, and in 2004 was confirmed by the Ministry of Science and Technology as one of the "First Batch of National Spark Program Rural Scientific and Technological Achievement Transformation Centers."
With the establishment of the market economy, most of China's agricultural technology extension systems built under the planned economy model had shut down. Rural surplus labor urgently needed the guidance and support of scientific and technological knowledge in various agricultural entrepreneurial activities, yet suffered from having no one to learn from. Hunan Agricultural University's activity of bringing science and technology to the countryside was truly "good rain knowing its season," nourishing the vast lands of the three Xiang regions. Over the years, in these activities, Hunan Agricultural University established more than 80 bases of various types for research, teaching, and demonstration extension at the grassroots level, achieving excellent results in achievement promotion and poverty alleviation through science and technology. Starting in 2005, after dialectically analyzing the US university-centered agricultural science and technology extension system, Japan's model of farmers' cooperative organizations promoting new agricultural technologies, and domestic models, the university launched a uniquely creative university science and technology extension system—the "Double Hundred" Science and Technology Program for Farmer Prosperity. This program organized 100 outstanding young and middle-aged faculty members to lead 100 science and technology teams, connecting with 100 rural demonstration bases selected across the province for science and technology services, driving scientific and technological progress in rural areas throughout the province. After the program was launched, the response was extremely strong, with leaders from several cities and counties rushing to make connections to be the first to taste this cup of "science and technology broth."
Hunan Citrus Processing Advances Toward World-Leading Level
Hunan Province's citrus processing ranks at the world's advanced level. If Hunan's citrus industry is compared to a fully powered train, its "engine" is the Hunan Provincial Agricultural Product Processing Research Institute. In just a few years, the institute has developed the world's first barrel of citrus brandy and China's first bottle of citrus fruit vinegar, obtaining 9 world and national invention patents.
Hunan Province has 4.45 million mu of citrus area, ranking first in the country. At the end of the last century, due to lagging processing and difficulty in preservation, citrus was hard to sell, and citrus farmers often found fruit falling from branches while worry rose in their hearts. Starting in 1998, with support from the Hunan Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the Hunan Provincial Agricultural Product Processing Research Institute successively undertook multiple national and provincial citrus processing research projects, led by Shan Yang, chief expert in agricultural product processing in Hunan Province, specifically establishing a research team to carry out deep processing research on citrus.
Ceaseless research yielded abundant results. In orange segment canning, Hunan explored and introduced more than ten new processes including low-temperature sterilization and oxygen-barrier plastic cup packaging, with product quality leaping to catch up with the world's most advanced Japan. In orange juice processing, compound enzyme preparations were used to remove the bitter taste of juice, filling a gap both domestically and internationally. In comprehensive utilization of peel residue, process parameters for extracting functional components such as essential oils and hesperidin were scientifically determined. A newly explored process for removing citrus segment membranes can reduce acid-base wastewater discharge by 50%, a green environmental technology at the world's leading level.
From the outset of the citrus processing research, leading enterprises in the province such as Xike and Xiyang participated throughout as collaborating units, investing tens of millions of yuan, directly introducing research achievements from the laboratory into production workshops, shortening the pilot testing phase, and cumulatively increasing output value by over 2 billion yuan. The application of new technologies also increased export earnings by 170 million US dollars, drove the citrus purchase price up by more than 1 yuan per kilogram, and increased citrus farmers' annual income by over 600 million yuan.
The Hunan Provincial Department of Agriculture and the Hunan Provincial Agricultural Product Processing Research Institute selected new citrus varieties suitable for canning and juicing, such as "Xiangshan Hong," "Jingua," and "Huyou," and supported processing sweet orange belts and Satsuma mandarin belts in southern and central Hunan respectively. The province's citrus processing rate rose from less than 5% before 2002 to 20% by 2007, leading the nation.
According to aerospace remote sensing observations, Hunan Province is the most suitable region in Asia for citrus cultivation. Hunan's citrus industry, with science and technology as its breakthrough, seized the high ground in processing and took the crown for orange segment can production from Spain, the "Canned Food Kingdom." In early 2007, Huiyuan Juice and Taiwan's Jiamei both came to Hunan to invest and build factories, forming an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of citrus juice. Orange juice processing alone will consume nearly 1 million tons of fresh oranges each year.
Hunan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Hunan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, located at No. 233 Cai'e North Road, Changsha City, Hunan Province, also known as the Second Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, is the first provincial-level renowned TCM hospital in Hunan Province. Its predecessor was the Xiangsheng National Hospital founded in 1934, and it has long been known as the "Birthplace of Huxiang Traditional Chinese Medicine" and the "Cradle of Famous Doctors of the Three Xiang Regions." It is a national Grade 3A TCM hospital and one of the leading TCM hospitals in the province integrating medical treatment, healthcare, teaching, and research.
The hospital currently has over 580 staff members, including 10 Hunan provincial famous TCM doctors with considerable influence both within and beyond the province, 48 professors, and 92 associate professors. It has 30 clinical and medical technology departments including Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Specialty, Western Medicine Surgery, TCM Surgery, Prostatology, Lithiasis Department, Dermatology and Sores Department, Anorectal Department, Orthopedics and Traumatology, Spine Surgery, Neck-Shoulder-Waist-Leg Pain Specialty, Hand and Foot Microsurgery, Ophthalmology, ENT Department, Stomatology, Gynecology, Infertility Specialty, Pediatrics, Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department, Stroke Specialty, Emergency Department, Massage Department, Clinical Laboratory, Radiology Department, Functional Examination Department, Pathology Department, and Pharmacy Department, with 50 specialty and disease-specific outpatient clinics and 500 beds. It possesses six national and provincial key specialties: the national key specialty Anorectal Department, the national key specialty Dermatology and Sores Department, the national key specialty construction unit Orthopedics and Traumatology, the national key specialty construction unit Gynecology Infertility Specialty, the Hunan provincial TCM key specialty Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Internal Medicine, and the Hunan provincial TCM key specialty Emergency Department. The China Acupuncture Clinical Research Center is established at the hospital, which also serves as the affiliated unit for 7 provincial TCM (integrated Chinese and Western medicine) professional academic committees. Five disciplines including Internal Medicine, Surgery, and ENT have the authority to confer doctoral degrees, and another 4 disciplines have the authority to confer master's degrees. In recent years, the hospital has undertaken over 100 research projects including National Natural Science Foundation projects, provincial Ninth Five-Year and Tenth Five-Year major research projects, and Health Department research projects, and has received over 50 research achievements at various levels.
The hospital stands out with its distinctive TCM characteristics. The Dermatology and Sores Department, Anorectal Department, Orthopedics and Traumatology, and Internal Medicine Cardiovascular Specialty—four key specialties—enjoy high recognition in Hunan Province and across the country. The "Winter Diseases Treated in Summer—Acupoint Application Therapy" of the Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, ENT, and Acupuncture departments, as one of the hospital's special features, attracts patients from all directions every year.
Since the reform and opening up, the hospital has earnestly implemented national medical and health policies, effectively reducing patients' burdens by implementing a lump-sum payment system for single diseases and a drug quota system for outpatient prescriptions, allowing patients to receive tangible benefits. The hospital has been successively rated as a "Four Satisfactions" winning unit in the provincial health system, a "Trustworthy Pharmacy," an "Advanced Unit in Professional Conduct Construction," a "Consumer-Trusted Unit," and a "First Prize Winner for Medical Insurance Work by the Hunan Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security."