China's regional powerhouses turbocharge high-quality development

An automatic container dock in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. [Xinhua]

Having long propelled China's economic ascent, major provincial-level regions are now leading the charge in the country's transformative shift toward high-quality development.

China's top 10 provincial economic heavyweights, including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang and Sichuan, accounted for over 60 percent of the country's GDP, despite covering less than 20 percent of its land area.