Unlocking the Secrets of Dazeshan's Virtue
On April 23rd, the month-long First Qingdao Dazeshan Hiking Festival opened. Known as "China's Hometown of Grapes" and a "National Demonstration Town for Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism," Dazeshan Town has opened its green, poetic arms to visitors from all directions.
Facing head-on the pain of "living off the mountain"
Located at the gateway to Jiaodong, Dazeshan is a famous historical mountain with clear waters, beautiful scenery, fine people and a profound cultural heritage. However, since the late 1980s, nearly a hundred quarries of various sizes sprang up here one after another, causing a series of problems including damage to the mountain body and ecological deterioration.
"Opening the mountain" is easy; "closing the mountain" is hard. When it comes to "closing the mountain," Sun Xiugong, director of the Dazeshan Town Land and Resources Office, has deep feelings. On April 25, 2012, he was transferred here under enormous pressure. Right after the work began, he was subjected to all kinds of intimidation and was frequently followed. The "stone bosses" called him, saying, "Your head is worth 500,000 yuan." Sun Xiugong shot back, "Fine, I'll deliver it to you!" Guan Xiangbin, Party secretary of Dazeshan Town, and Chen Zongjin, the deputy mayor in charge, both encountered similar experiences, or even worse ones...
With the resolve to cut off one's own wrist and with towering righteousness, in just one month the "mountain-closing team" led by Sun Xiugong seized and detained 6 large excavators, 4 air compressors and 5 vehicles used for illegal transport. "This is an act that is 'accountable to the organization above, to the masses below, and to one's conscience in between,'" Guan Xiangbin said. In less than two years, Dazeshan Town shut down 158 stone processing enterprises and 168 waste plastic processing enterprises, carried out demolition and land clearance measures for the closed stone processing enterprises, and strictly managed and controlled those not yet shut down, truly returning green mountains and clear waters to the people.
Sweet grapes turn into "golden grapes"
With the implementation of measures to completely close the mines, pollution control achieved considerable results, and Dazeshan Town began guiding the people to focus their main energies on the development of refined agriculture centered on grapes and cultural tourism centered on mountain-and-water experiences.
"Turpan in the west, Dazeshan in the east." Dazeshan grapes are renowned at home and abroad, famous for their thin skins, thick flesh, abundant juice and good taste. "Today's grape prices are 50 times what they were when the grape festival first started, climbing all the way from two or three mao per kilogram to more than ten yuan at present," Guan Xiangbin said. Dazeshan grapes have successively obtained certifications as pollution-free food, green food, organic food and nationally protected geographical indication products, as well as the title of China Well-Known Trademark; this year they were also selected among the top 50 most influential regional public brands of fruit in the Ministry of Agriculture.
At present, the town already has more than 200 grape varieties, with the main varieties being "Rose Fragrance," "Zeshan No. 1" and "Golden Finger," among others; the grape cultivation area has reached 35,000 mu, and per capita income has exceeded 20,000 yuan. Transforming the growth model and adjusting the structure has turned Dazeshan's "sweet grapes" into "golden grapes," and has also driven the development of Pingdu City's 140,000-mu grape industry.
Green industry "chain" becomes a treasure bowl
In regional economic competition, cultural tourism has become a trump card. When Dazeshan's profound cultural resources and grape resources are integrated together, the cultural and tourism connotations in economic activity greatly exceed the material carriers they rely on.
Dazeshan Town has now built 37 distinctive grape manors and scenic areas, and more than 70 dining and hotel establishments of various kinds, attracting more than 600,000 tourists each year for picking and tasting, tourism and leisure, and vacation and wellness. The annual grape festival, moving from selling grapes to selling culture and selling tourism, has let local people earn overflowing profits, driving an increase in farmers' income of about 200 million yuan each year.
After several years of nurturing the mountain, the once-devastated Dazeshan has begun to turn green, and the ecological environment is continuously improving and being restored. Every winter, flocks of whooper swans, wild ducks and others come here one after another to roost and rest. At present, the town's new plan for building a distinctive small town has already taken shape. The "Rhythm of Spring" Qingdao International Dazeshan Hiking Festival and the "Fruits of Autumn" Qingdao Dazeshan Grape Festival link agriculture, culture and tourism together, deeply building a modern leisure, wellness and sightseeing tour, extending the green industry chain and driving the local economy's development. "The Daze dragon lies hidden, concealing ancient riches; clear mountains and waters display a new grace." Guan Xiangbin expressed that they are full of confidence in Dazeshan's future development.