Guantao bids farewell to relying on the weather and starts earning from tourism
Now in Guantao County, Hebei Province, more and more farmers are taking up beautiful countryside tourism as a “new rice bowl”, and by combining it with beautiful countryside construction, they are earning more and more “beautiful” income. Beautiful countryside tourism has brought employment opportunities to Guantao farmers, driven the adjustment of the industrial structure, and also increased village collective income, helping poor households escape poverty.
“Xianqiao Grain Painting Experience Room” When entering the Grain Painting Town, the first thing that comes into view is this ordinary farmyard. The yard is not large, but it is arranged in good order. Entering the “Grain Painting Experience Room” built of glass on the east side of the yard, a fresh earthy fragrance greets the nose. Sunlight passes through the light blue glass and shines on the spotless white tabletop. The walls are covered with finished grain paintings and group photos with tourists.
“Although the space is small, this is still up to the standard of a 4S store.” Shi Xianqiao, in her early thirties, was the first person in Shoudong Village to open a “grain painting experience” business.
During last year's National Day holiday, the “Xianqiao Grain Painting Experience Room” received an average of 500 tourists per day, sold more than 100 pieces at most in a single day, and earned more than 4,000 yuan in total. Later, having tasted success, Shi Xianqiao formally founded the “Xianqiao Grain Painting Studio”. On the original basis, she independently developed grain painting varieties mainly using traditional Chinese medicinal materials, five grains and rapeseed, wild vegetables and other raw materials, with an annual income of nearly 100,000 yuan.
“In the past, our family relied entirely on my husband, with six people old and young, and life was very tight. Now it is different, we have hope!” Shi Xianqiao said excitedly. “Next, I plan to build another yard so tourists can eat and stay here. Our family also has six mu of orchard, and in autumn they can also pick fruit.”
Today, “grain painting” has become the pillar industry of Shoudong Village. It has successively won honors such as “China's Top Ten Most Beautiful Villages”, “CCTV Filming Base”, “The Fourth National Civilized Village and Town”, and “Hebei Beautiful Countryside”. In April 2016, it was rated as a national 3A-level tourist attraction. The influx of tourists has enabled more and more villagers to become small business owners at their own doorsteps.
From “relying on the weather” to “relying on the village”, in the Grain Painting Town of Shoudong Village, there are still many villagers like Shi Xianqiao who have undergone tremendous changes. There is Ge's cold noodles at the village entrance, salted duck eggs and handmade weaving on the street, the Zhengzheng Tiegu farmhouse restaurant in Chen Family Alley, and the tofu workshop in the Grape Corridor…… Up to now, Shoudong Village has more than a dozen farmhouse restaurants and farmer self-employed households, with annual income exceeding 100,000 yuan.
“Sister, over here, over here, that table has just finished!” When Wang Menglian was seen, she was busy greeting guests throughout the yard.
Wang Taoyuan, the Education Town, is a small village 60 li from the county seat with a population of less than 500. Since the resumption of the college entrance examination, the “Wang Taoyuan phenomenon” of 123 college students emerging from the village has been widely reported by major media outlets.
Seeing the tourists flocking to the village every day, Wang Menglian and her husband Wang Fuguo, who worked far away in Beijing, had the idea of opening a “farmhouse restaurant”.
“First, we had no money, and second, we had no experience. At that time, we really had no confidence.” Wang Menglian said. “The township sent people to analyze it for us, helped us acquire two mu of land, and even allocated floor tiles during renovation, giving us a great deal of help.”
In July 2015, Wang Menglian's “Zhuangyuan Chicken” farmhouse restaurant officially opened. The novel and unique wheat straw stack private rooms, the primitive and simple big-bowl tea, and the little yellow chickens walking in the yard attracted batch after batch of tourists who came because of its reputation.
“We have 6 private rooms, all brick-and-tile structures, and each private room is equipped with air conditioning.” Wang Menglian, with her loud voice, shouted at the top of her lungs while serving chicken pieces to tourists. “We once received 380 people in a day. Just now, we expanded a new hall to the north. After all, we cannot always let tourists eat in the yard!”
From opening last year to now, in less than a year, Wang Menglian has already paid off more than 100,000 yuan in debts.
In Wang Fuguo's memory, two years ago Wang Taoyuan was still a scene of dirt and disorder, with piles of garbage and flies everywhere. Whenever it rained, several muddy roads in the village became muddy ponds. In 2014, the horn sounded for beautiful countryside construction in Guantao County: road hardening, village greening, sewage treatment…… Not long after, the “Education Town” was born, with clear rivers, clean ponds, green trees and red flowers.
“In the words of city people, our village is now a ‘Shangri-La’, just like the Shangri-La sung in the village song, a beautiful place, peach blossoms fragrant for a hundred li……” Wang Fuguo cleared his throat and hummed softly.
Wang Menglian's happy experience represents the heartfelt wishes of countless villagers in the beautiful countryside of Guantao County. Up to now, the county has built 16 characteristic towns, including Grain Painting Town, Education Town, and Cucumber Town, and developed dozens of “farmhouse restaurants” and “rural inns”, with average annual household income exceeding 100,000 yuan.
In the process of beautiful countryside construction, Guantao County respects the original appearance of the countryside, abandons large-scale demolition and construction, takes “one town, multiple communities” as the framework, follows the requirement of “one village, one characteristic”, insists on strengthening villages through industry and promoting beauty through prosperity, regards the development of characteristic industries as the top priority, and organically combines characteristic industries with eco-tourism, such as the grain painting experience in Grain Painting Town, cucumber picking and cucumber banquet in Cucumber Town, and the Dream Realization Classroom summer camp in Education Town. Through a government-led + market-operated approach, it vigorously invests in tourism infrastructure construction and has embarked on a new path of “beautiful countryside + tourism”.
It is reported that in order to promote beautiful countryside construction to a new level, the county vigorously implements the “262” project, that is, the county's 277 villages are divided into three levels - five-star, four-star and three-star - according to the proportions of 20%, 60% and 20% and different construction tasks, and beautiful countryside creation activities are carried out by category. By 2020, 50 five-star beautiful countryside villages, 177 four-star beautiful countryside villages and 50 three-star beautiful countryside villages will be basically completed, achieving full coverage of beautiful countryside construction.
Gao Yang, our reporter Feng Lei