Retired Couple in Shexian, Handan Turns 500 Mu of Barren Mountain into a "Flower and Fruit Mountain"
On the Nanlindi Mountain behind Caojiazhuang Village in Longhu Township, Shexian, there is a couple past the age of 60. They have a sufficient pension and a life free of worries, yet they spare no effort in returning to the countryside to contract over 500 mu of barren mountain, reclaiming the land, planting trees and developing specialty farming, rooting their green dream in the Taihang Mountains.
Caojiazhuang Village is located in Longhu Township, Shexian. The village has a total of 175 households, a population of 585, and 380 mu of arable land. Because land is scarce, most villagers choose to leave and work elsewhere to make a living. The barren mountain of Nanlindi contracted by Cao Heshun and his wife, now 65 years old, is located 3 km behind Caojiazhuang Village, where the soil is poor and thorns are everywhere, and it had been ignored by everyone for many years. Yet such a place, through more than 5 years of effort by the old Cao couple, has been turned into a "Flower and Fruit Mountain" and a "large farm" hidden deep in the mountains. Today, a 5 m wide winding mountain road over 1,000 m long has been completed and opened to traffic, more than 1,000 apple trees, cherry trees, plum trees, peach trees, apricot trees, prickly ash trees, walnut trees and persimmon trees cover the slopes, and more than 150 chickens, ducks and geese are raised here. The villagers all say that the old Cao couple brought this mountain back to life, and the once-bald mountain is beginning to turn green.
"I drifted around outside my whole life, and now that I'm old I just want to come back and guard this mountain of my hometown, plant some trees and leave the children something to remember me by!" On July 12, this writer met Cao Heshun and his wife Wang Shuqin. Through conversation it was learned that old Cao was a former employee of the Handan Municipal Commerce Bureau, and his son works in Qingdao. After retiring in 2011, he returned with his wife to the barren mountain behind Caojiazhuang Village in Longhu Township, Shexian, their hometown, to develop farming and livestock raising and realize his green dream of many years. Although already past 60, the old Cao couple are in very good spirits, especially whenever he mentions the over 500 mu of barren mountain and his ecological farm he contracted, he is very happy. "When we first arrived on the mountain there was no water, electricity or road at all, so we had to walk five or six li to the village to fetch water and buy grain and vegetables. In the twelfth lunar month we still had to build stone embankments against the howling mountain wind, and our hands were frozen with bloody cracks..." His wife Wang Shuqin said while pointing to a stone embankment beside them that is more than 4,000 m long and 4 m high. This "stone Great Wall" took old Cao more than 3 years to build alone, and old Cao has now invested more than 500,000 yuan in this mountain.
Under old Cao's leadership, the villagers began to see a "new path" to prosperity, and one after another they went up the mountain to learn techniques from old Cao such as fruit tree grafting and the raising of poultry and ground beetles. The once-barren mountain began to bustle, the villagers' days became more and more hopeful, and old Cao's green dream was being realized step by step.