The peaches of Huangmaoya have turned red, and after four years of returning home to start a business, a bountiful harvest is near

Half-hidden among the branches and leaves, the white peaches at the tips of the branches had taken on a blush. "In another half month, they'll be ready for market." Early in the morning on May 31, Luo Hong stood at the edge of the peach grove leaning on his hoe, his face covered in smiles. He and a group of fellow villagers had returned home to start a business four years ago, and a bountiful harvest was now near.

This is Junzhai Village, Huangmao Township, Cangxi County, 104 km from the county seat, and the only bus route to the county seat takes 4 hours. Many mountains, deep valleys and poverty are the labels here. Four years ago, Luo Hong, who had struggled in Chengdu for 15 years, led a group of people to return home and start businesses, investing in road construction, building a modern agricultural industrial park, and developing red tourism, turning this remote mountain township into a hot spot for entrepreneurship.

Returning home to start a business: growing peaches and developing tourism

"You want to go back to that poor backwater to stir things up again, what for?" In early 2012, when the 47-year-old Luo Hong was preparing to return home to start a business, his wife and parents opposed it. But Luo Hong's idea was simple: the hometown had such a good ecological environment and such good red tourism resources that it would be a pity not to develop them.

He invited experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences to survey the area, and found that the soil and climate here were very suitable for growing "peaches," crisp peaches and kiwifruit. He acted at once, first transferring 200 hectares of land and planting 80 hectares of crisp peaches, 20 hectares of ornamental peaches, 20 hectares of kiwifruit and 80 hectares of white-fleshed loquat. Among this, villagers held 50% in shares through land and labor, experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences held 10% through technical shares, and Luo Hong and several other returning entrepreneurs held 40% through cash shares. "I put my family's 6 mu of land into shares to grow kiwifruit, and last year the income was more than 30,000 yuan," said Wang Chaoguang, a villager from Group 2 of Junzhai Village. If they grew corn, wheat and miscellaneous grains, a year's income of 10,000 yuan would already be considered good. Today the agricultural industrial park has attracted more than a thousand nearby farmers to work, with per capita annual income ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan.

With the green industry established, red tourism also had to keep up. In 1934, Xu Xiangqian and Li Xiannian commanded the famous "Huangmaoya Battle" here. With the planning help of the local government, Luo Hong joined with several fellow villagers to invest in repairing the Huangmaoya battle site and the martyrs' cemetery, building a new 3,000-square-meter Red Army Park, a new Red Army Square of more than 10,000 square meters, and 2 new irrigation and sightseeing ponds and weirs named Red Army Weirs.

With both "red" and "green," how could visitors be attracted? Luo Hong contributed 10 million yuan to build roads, constructing a 14.6 km expressway from the nearest exit at Mumen Station on the Guangba Expressway in Wangcang, called the Red Army Road, connecting the agricultural park and tourist attractions and linking up with the county road. In March this year, the 7th Sichuan Rural Cultural Tourism Festival set up a sub-venue in Huangmao Township, and thousands of tourists poured in, spurring the growth of farmhouse restaurants along the road.

Driving fellow villagers along: making rural tourism bigger

In Luo Hong's car there is a disc that plays three songs on repeat, "Huangmaoya Battle Song," "Colorful Huangmaoya" and "The Broad Road of the People of Huangmao," and the beautiful melodies are intoxicating. These were created by music professionals whom Luo Hong invited to Huangmao to gather inspiration.

He also hired people to make an album and paid out of his own pocket to produce the video "Beautiful Scenery of Huangmao," actively promoting his hometown. In the WeChat group of the Huangmaoya Chamber of Commerce that he created, pictures and videos of his hometown that he took often appeared, drawing "likes" from fellow villagers in Zhejiang, Beijing, Guangdong and other places. In May last year, Luo Hong gathered more than 120 entrepreneurs of Huangmao origin who had succeeded in business elsewhere and, with the support of the county Federation of Industry and Commerce, established the Huangmaoya Chamber of Commerce, which became a platform for fellow villagers to exchange information and return home to start businesses.

"Luo Hong has influenced and driven a group of fellow villagers to return home and start businesses," said Ke Xiong, Party secretary of Huangmao Township. Luo Hong had long been in the stone business in Chengdu and had brought out more than 100 people one after another, most of whom made their fortunes in the "stone business" and later scattered to run businesses elsewhere. Driven by Luo Hong, 9 fellow villagers have now returned home to start businesses, among which Luo Hong's personal investment is nearly 60 million yuan. Under the guidance of the local government, Luo Hong and a group of fellow villagers are now planning to build a tourist reception center, star-rated rural hotels and more, to make rural tourism bigger.