BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Late at night on Jan. 16, a massive ship carrying about 2,500 tonnes of cherries from Chile steadily docked at a berth in north China's Tianjin Port.

Ports, customs, maritime departments and freight companies stood ready to relay these fruits, which had just completed a 10,000-nautical mile voyage across the Pacific, to major fruit and vegetable markets in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei in the early morning of the following day.

In the past, it used to take two whole days for cherries, which are difficult to keep fresh, to be loaded at ports in southern parts of China and then transported to the northern region by road, according to Zhang Lei, general manager of a Tianjin Port Group logistics company.

The ship that docked in Tianjin on Jan. 16 not only delivered local consumers sweetness from the other side of the world, but also served as a tangible reminder of the positive impact the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development has had on the local populace.

Introduced by China in 2014, this strategy has seen progress including an improved transportation system, robust infrastructure, and enhanced teaching levels in schools across the region, and more.

QUALITY MEDICAL RESOURCES CHANNELED TO HEBEI

A premature baby with a light birth weight and suffering from severe abdominal distension shortly after birth in Baoding, Hebei, required urgent surgical treatment.

Zhang Xiaohui, a senior neonatal surgeon at a children's hospital in Baoding, urgently made contact with Chen Yongwei, his counterpart at the Beijing Children's Hospital, and asked for help. The collaboration between the two surgeons proved enough to save the baby.

Since 2015, a partnership has existed between Beijing Children's hospital and the children's hospital in Baoding. The partnership entails experts from Beijing being dispatched to Baoding on a regular basis, which helps elevate the diagnosis and treatment capacity of the local medical staff in Baoding.

Between 2015 and 2023, the annual outpatient volume of the children's hospital in Baoding increased from 250,000 to 630,000, while the referral rate for local children dropped by 90 percent. These figures indicate that children in Baoding are now much less reliant on trips to Beijing for medical treatment.

Meanwhile, Hebei and Tianjin have also been actively cooperating to make it more convenient for a greater number of people to obtain quality medical treatment. For instance, cooperation has been fostered involving a number of medical institutions in the city of Cangzhou in Hebei and 16 medical institutions in Tianjin.

In addition, regional medical cooperation has helped Hebei cultivate more competent local talent. For example, Hebei Yanda Hospital has cooperated with top-notch medical institutions in Beijing, with its diagnosis and treatment levels significantly improved as result of such interactions.

Under the coordinated development plan, local residents now enjoy a medical reimbursement policy that helps streamline the reimbursement procedure when they seek medical treatment or buy drugs at designated institutions across the region. Other moves, such as mutual recognition of hospital examination results, also assist the community in concrete ways.

MORE OPTIONS FOR ENJOYING TWILIGHT YEARS

Song Deming, a Beijing senior citizen, decided in 2018 to spend his retired life in an old-age care facility in Sanhe in Hebei, after doing research and investigating his options. The facility, located near a river that separates Hebei from Tongzhou District in Beijing, provides extensive equipment and offers rich recreational activities -- much to Song's satisfaction.

"This place is close to my hometown of Beijing and boasts a beautiful environment," said Song, while also noting that the neighboring general hospital and preferential reimbursement policy saves him the trouble of having to go back to Beijing for medical treatment, thereby making his life easier.

As one of the pilot units for the coordinated development of elderly care services in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the facility enjoys specialized subsidies and 95 percent of its residents are from Beijing.

Taking advantage of its unique location, beautiful scenery and lower cost of living, Hebei Province has earmarked 14 counties surrounding Beijing as priority areas for the development of elderly-care services in a bid to persuade the silver-haired from Beijing and Tianjin to spend their twilight years there.

According to official data, in September 2023, there were nearly 5,000 senior citizens from Beijing spending their retired life in old-age facilities in Hebei.

In addition, authorities have pledged more efforts to boost coordinated development of elderly care services in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the future, including promoting cooperation between eligible Traditional Chinese Medicine institutions in Beijing and qualified elderly care institutions in Hebei and Tianjin. Enditem

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