Xia Shaopeng, head of the poverty alleviation working group, writes a heartfelt commitment to enriching the people on the banks of the Juma River
Xia Shaopeng is director of the United Front Liaison Department of the Communist Youth League Provincial Committee and secretary-general of the Hebei Youth Federation. This time he serves as head of the poverty alleviation working group stationed in Baijian Village, Laishui County.
□Hebei Daily correspondents Han Han and Yang Zhimin
Hebei Daily reporter Ge Xiquan
As the Provincial Tourism Development Conference approaches, Xia Shaopeng and other members of the poverty alleviation working group stationed in Baijian Village have become increasingly busy.
As a key beautiful countryside project for the first Provincial Tourism Development Conference, the working group, combining the needs of industrial development with the overall driving concept of tourism-based poverty alleviation, has worked with village officials and residents to renovate houses, create the Juma River landscape, and build a nearly 1,000-mu countryside park...
"After the working group came, they dredged the river channel for us. The once-dry Juma River now has water, the riverside is green, and the environment is beautiful," said villager Liu Wenfen at the construction site of the Juma River landscape belt.
Xia Shaopeng is director of the United Front Liaison Department of the Communist Youth League Provincial Committee and secretary-general of the Hebei Youth Federation. This time he serves as head of the poverty alleviation working group stationed in Baijian Village, Laishui County. After he and two colleagues, Jia Xiaowen and Li Yonghong, came here to provide assistance, he took on yet another new position - first secretary of Baijian Village.
Baijian Village is about 100 kilometers from the seat of Laishui County. It is not only remote geographically but also very short of resources. Of the village's 644 households, 174 are impoverished, making it a provincially designated registered poverty-stricken village for targeted poverty alleviation.
"As soon as we entered the village, we went door to door to communicate. This not only narrowed the distance between us and the villagers, but also helped us learn a lot about the situation," Xia Shaopeng said. The people of Baijian Village had once raised revolving cattle to escape poverty, but due to insufficient feed supply, inconvenient transportation and various other reasons, these projects that "looked good at the time" did not help them escape poverty.
To strengthen the villagers' confidence in escaping poverty and becoming prosperous, the working group organized the village's two committees, business leaders and others to visit Feixiang in Handan, Neiqiu in Xingtai, Pingshan in Shijiazhuang, Yixian in Baoding and other places to study fruit tree planting, rural tourism, land transfer and beautiful countryside construction, stimulating the villagers' enthusiasm and initiative for economic development.
In Xia Shaopeng's view, finding the right path is fundamental to escaping poverty and achieving prosperity. After repeated research and constant reflection, everyone agreed that targeted poverty alleviation and beautiful countryside construction should be planned as a whole. Based on Baijian Village's actual conditions, they would build a "one body, two wings" industrial poverty alleviation layout focused on eco-tourism, supported by fruit tree cultivation and livestock breeding, and promote the building of a beautiful countryside where mountains can be seen, water can be seen, and nostalgic memories can be kept.
To this end, they actively coordinated efforts and invited experts from the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Hebei Agricultural University, Zhangjiakou Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other research institutes to offer advice for the village. Ultimately they formed an overall design plan for industry and tourism: "one river, two roads, four clusters" ("one river" is the Juma River landscape belt; "two roads" are the Taihang-style tourism commercial street and the riverside sightseeing road; "four clusters" are Apple Mountain, the Qingliangjian ecological health tourism area, the Cherry Valley picking area, and the breeding industry park).
According to this plan, drawing on the advantages of natural and environmental resources and the opportunity of Laishui County's vigorous development of all-for-one tourism, they attracted Hebei Guohe Investment Group, Hebei Runheng Group and Zhonghengneng Bioenergy Technology Co., Ltd. to invest in Baijian Village. The working group actively used market thinking to plan poverty alleviation industries, drew on the green development model of Fugang apples in Xingtai, invited Professor Sun Jianshe of Hebei Agricultural University to personally guide apple planting in the village, invited experts from the Provincial Water Conservancy Research Institute to guide the design of the drip irrigation system, and adopted the integrated water and fertilizer irrigation technique to ensure fruit quality. This year, more than 50,000 "three-excellent" apple trees were planted. By planting the best varieties and using scientific cultivation, the survival rate of the fruit trees reached 90%.
Escaping poverty and achieving prosperity cannot be separated from hard work and solid effort. When carrying out the task of planting trees on the mountain, the working group led hundreds of villagers to eat and live on the mountain. When machinery was inconvenient in the mountainous area, they relied on tricycles and manpower to build a small reservoir in 28 days, solving the irrigation problem for the apple trees. They led the villagers to camp deep in the mountains for 7 days and 7 nights, continuously watering and irrigating the apple trees, forging a tenacious fighting spirit of hard work and solid effort.
Baijian Village started late and has a weak foundation; without innovation there is no way forward. The working group actively explored new models and new vehicles for comprehensive poverty alleviation to thoroughly solve the difficulties hindering rural economic development, such as weak labor capacity and poverty caused by illness. They actively coordinated to secure government support and various types of financial funds, used this year to expand the scale of Angora rabbit breeding, built a new 100-mu breeding base, and greatly increased the per capita income of poor households. They built a village mutual-aid happiness home for the elderly. By exploring a multi-layered funding guarantee mechanism of "village collective investment as the main source, bundled use of three types of insurance funds, dividends from poverty alleviation industries and social donations, and support from special government funds," they provided centralized mutual-aid elderly care for poor households and elderly people enjoying the five guarantees, piloting a new model of elderly care in poor mountainous areas and thoroughly eliminating the impoverished population.
Baijian Village is located in the center of the three counties of Laishui, Laiyuan and Yixian in the Baidu Scenic Area west of Beijing. From here, going north leads directly to the core scenic area of Yesanpo; going west along National Highway 108 leads to Laiyuan; going south along Provincial Highway 241 leads to Zijingguan in Yixian. Seizing the opportunity of the first Provincial Tourism Development Conference, the working group has vigorously carried out beautiful countryside construction, and a distinctive village integrating Taihang Mountain folk custom experiences, leisure and health care, and sightseeing and picking is about to take shape.