A view of Taizhou, Zhejiang province. CHINA DAILY

More than a millennium ago, the renowned poets Hanshan and Shide forged a deep friendship at the foothills of Tiantai Mountain in Taizhou, Zhejiang province.

Living in seclusion among the forests and streams, they composed poetry and practiced meditation, becoming enduring symbols of harmony and unity in Chinese culture. Later generations honored them as the Two Sages of Harmony and Union.

Today, around 1,200 years later, the story of these close friends continues to resonate throughout Taizhou. More importantly, the spirit of harmony they embodied has transcended historical boundaries, gaining renewed relevance and vitality in the contemporary world.

Taizhou, renowned as the hometown of Hehe culture in China, continues to uphold the cultural gene of harmony in diversity. Today, this ancient philosophy of Hehe, which embodies the pursuit of harmony between mind and body, among people and between humanity and nature, has evolved from classical texts into a practice.

It now serves as both the cultural wellspring of the city's spirit and a "cultural engine" for development. This principle is reshaping the city's growth model across multiple dimensions: fostering inner peace and physical well-being for its citizens, promoting social harmony, and encouraging coexistence with the great outdoors.

As a result, Hehe culture is demonstrating its contemporary relevance and driving progress in Taizhou's economic growth, social development, and ecological conservation efforts.

By leveraging its unique assets — from natural landscapes and cultural heritage to industrial prowess — Taizhou is translating its ancient philosophy of harmony into a model of sustainable urban development.

Harmonious governance

Recently, the "Hehe family mediation hall" in Huangyan district has provided integrated support to families undergoing the divorce cooling-off period. It utilizes a team of professionals that includes family case investigators, mediators, parenting instructors and psychological counselors.

Such an initiative is part of a broader approach pioneered by Taizhou, which has established dedicated spaces like family mediation rooms, family case sharing courts, and psychological counseling rooms across the region. The system incorporates innovative mechanisms, such as a quantified assessment for broken marriages, to provide comprehensive services to families who voluntarily seek a reconciliation period. These include dispute mediation, legal consultation, marital guidance, and psychological support.

Through a series of reforms targeting family dispute resolution, Taizhou is achieving tangible results in its "Hehe harmonious families" initiative. By ensuring seamless data flow, end-to-end oversight, and centralized resource allocation, these measures have taken root and yielded positive outcomes across the city.

Local districts are implementing targeted programs. For instance, Jiaojiang district has engaged professional teams for three consecutive years to provide personalized family dispute counseling, while Tiantai county is exploring models that link positive family traditions with financial and retail incentives that benefit harmonious households. In Wenling, a marriage and family institute has launched 69 courses under a "parent credit system", attracting 700 families with a 99.6 percent satisfaction rate.

From mediating domestic disputes to fostering exemplary community governance, the philosophy of Hehe has become a core principle in Taizhou's grassroots governance. Through a six-pronged strategy based on precision, autonomy, ethics, collaboration, the rule of law, and smart technology, the Hehe community in Taizhou is building a model of urban governance that is intelligent, people-centered and collaborative.

In major commercial districts of Taizhou, public-spirited businesses are taking the lead in establishing self-governing bodies and formulating community codes of conduct. With residents involved in neighborhood management, an incentive-based governance mechanism has been implemented. Initiatives such as a points system for storefront responsibility, recognition of model stores and public listings of compliance records have helped address long-standing urban management challenges.

A corps of "Hehe street managers", well-versed in the local culture of harmony, has been deployed to the front lines of community service. Simultaneously, a growing number of well-managed and harmonious "Hehe homes" have emerged as model neighborhoods. Meanwhile, new public "Hehe living rooms" that blend cultural, ecological and aesthetic value are providing residents with innovative communal spaces.

Collaborative prosperity

The Hanshan Shenyin common prosperity demonstration belt, which begins in Jietou town in Tiantai county, is designed to showcase Hehe culture. The route takes culture as its spiritual core to connect picturesque villages including Hou'an and Huangshui, blending natural scenery, historical sites and contemporary rural life into a modern utopia where communities and landscape thrive together.

Located in southwestern Tiantai county, the belt leverages its unique cultural and geographical heritage, as it is the birthplace of Hehe culture. By adopting a cross-township cluster development model, it embodies the principle of harmony in diversity and win-win cooperation. This approach has replaced isolated village efforts with a unified strategy, forging a community marked by a beautiful environment, shared resources and interconnected industries, injecting sustained vitality into the region's rural development.

Significant development has also taken place in the fishing village of Shangzhantou in Yuhuan, a county-level city in southeastern Taizhou. The Hehe concept serves as the driving force behind its progress toward common prosperity.

Shangzhantou village has pioneered a unique shareholding model for collective development. Under this system, the village collective holds a 51 percent majority stake, while villagers hold 49 percent, with shares offered on a voluntary basis. This approach has established a sound mechanism for joint decision-making, cooperative management, and profit sharing, creating a unified economic entity with policy backing and operational strengths.

Under the benefit linkage mechanism, villagers have been transformed into shareholders, turning community affairs into personal matters and sparking a surge in development. A series of projects have been completed, including the province's first coastal glass bridge, a "Shenzhou UFO" ride, and a virtual reality cinema. The once-overlooked village has now become a popular tourist destination.

The influence of Hehe culture has extended from guiding rural common prosperity to stimulating innovation in the financial sector.

Located in Taizhou, Zhejiang Tailong Commercial Bank has integrated the essence of Hehe culture with its philosophy of practicing inclusive finance.

Centered on the principle of harmonious coexistence, the bank connects finance, clients and products to support the development of the real economy. It explores "public welfare sharing" to create distinctive financial service models for small and micro enterprises and charitable operation models.

By deepening harmonious and win-win collaboration, it builds a people-oriented management system, achieving the goal of mutual growth for enterprises and employees, as well as shared development with society. Through these efforts, the bank is striving to build a financial model for the practice of Hehe-driven common prosperity.

Recognized as a pivotal hub in the development of China's private economy, Taizhou has exemplified how Hehe culture underpins a vibrant market ecosystem.

Many local entrepreneurs have integrated the principles into corporate management and culture. They prioritize harmonious labor relations, using mechanisms such as collective wage negotiations to enhance employees' sense of belonging and cohesion, fostering shared growth between the enterprise and its workforce. In business cooperation, Taizhou entrepreneurs widely adhere to the concept of harmonious and mutually beneficial outcomes. This philosophy has become a vital cultural source of resilience, enabling the local private economy to thrive in export-oriented and competitive markets.

Natural balance

The wisdom of harmony between humanity and nature, a core tenet of Hehe culture, illustrates a symbiotic relationship where people and the natural world coexist and thrive together. Nestled on the coast of the East China Sea, Taizhou has been drawing on this ancient wisdom. The city's identity is linked to the ocean. For centuries, its inhabitants have lived by and thrived on the sea, developing a distinctive model of symbiotic coexistence between people and the marine environment.

Nowadays, the world is confronting a severe challenge in managing marine plastic waste. As a coastal city, Taizhou has endured the dual pressures of plastic pollution on both its ecological environment and fishery resources. But a profound transformation is now unfolding here.

The "blue cycle" initiative represents an innovative model for addressing marine plastic pollution. By establishing a collaborative alliance among government bodies, enterprises, fishermen and the public, the project has formed a shared-responsibility partnership grounded in the principle of harmonious cooperation.

Since its implementation, it has collected and processed tens of thousands of tons of marine debris, improving the environment of coastal and offshore waters, protecting marine biodiversity and pioneering a sustainable, replicable approach to ocean governance. In 2023, the initiative was awarded the United Nations' Champions of the Earth award, serving as a marine-sector embodiment of the principle that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".

Taizhou has prioritized ecological protection and natural restoration, implementing systematic improvements to its coastline and island ecosystems to build a model of sustainable offshore development characterized by clear waters, green shores, clean beaches, beautiful bays and vibrant islands.

Sandy shoreline restoration has created soft, fine beaches at Meihua Bay and Tuditang, which now attract numerous visitors while protecting coastal resources. Concurrent vegetation recovery efforts have increased forest coverage to over 60 percent by planting native and adaptive species like photinia and crape myrtle, revitalizing areas such as Fengwei Mountain.