Hanguan County's Hanzhuang Village Builds Premium Rural Tourism on Its Resource Advantages
Yellow River News Network Changzhi Channel (Reporter Xiao Guihai, Correspondents Qin Fengming, Qin Aiguo)In recent years, under the leadership of the village two committees, the people of Hanzhuang Village in Baichi Town, Hanguan County, have built on their mountain and water resources, relied on specialized facility agriculture, and focused on the six elements of "food, lodging, transport, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment" to develop the countryside's natural scenery, pastoral views, farming culture and local culture. They have worked hard to create a green eco-tourism village in the Shangdang Basin that integrates sightseeing, leisure vacations, lodging, fruit picking and entertainment, striving to blaze a development path that blends village and scenery, is supported by industry and benefits the general public, thereby driving villagers to increase their incomes and achieve prosperity, and realizing the goal of moderate prosperity.
Pictured: The newly opened winding mountain road
Hanzhuang Village is located 40 li south of Hanguan city on the western foot of the Taihang Mountains, facing the ancient city of Yiyang at the summit of the Taihang Mountains to the east, leaning against the foot of Junbo Baitou Mountain to the west, with the Taoqing River and its tributary the Longwei River converging to the south of the village. In the reservoir area at the center of the village stands Longshan (Dragon Mountain), which descends westward from the summit of the Taihang Mountains; three main mountains including Nanling Mountain rise in succession, and the mountains to the southeast look like a dragon rearing its head, its claws pulling at the stream and its tail flying and swaying, offering boundless scenery. The village has a total area of 6,700 mu, more than 2,000 villagers and over 2,700 mu of cultivated land. Of this, forest land reaches 3,000 mu, with a deep forest coverage rate of 56%. It is a village with profound traditional culture, simple and honest folkways, beautiful scenery and relatively fast economic development.
What advantages does Hanzhuang Village have? What is its future direction of development? Where should the focus of beautiful countryside construction be? As soon as Li Yongbing and other village cadres took office, they pondered these questions earnestly, repeatedly leading villagers' representatives on study tours elsewhere, hoping to sketch out a scientific development blueprint for Hanzhuang Village's tomorrow.
Hanzhuang Village has a unique climate and fertile soil. In recent years, the village has vigorously pursued facility agriculture construction. The village committee hired technical personnel at high salaries and adopted the "five unifications" measures, enabling villagers to embark on a path of increasing income and prosperity through facility agriculture. At present, the village has built more than 160 vegetable greenhouses and more than 40 mushroom greenhouses. By operating greenhouses year-round, villagers have achieved the goal of increasing income by more than 20,000 yuan per household per year.
Pictured: The newly opened winding mountain road
With the successful experience of growing greenhouse vegetables and mushrooms, the village cadres and villagers are full of confidence about building a leisure and vacation resort area.
In fact, Party Secretary Li Yongbing has long had his own vision for Hanzhuang Village's rural eco-tourism. Two folk-culture villages, multiple ancient temples, the Shenquan Garden Picking Orchard, Dinghuang Park, several natural springs and a large reservoir of 1,000 mu all have features unique to Hanzhuang Village. By leveraging its geographical advantages, building a mountain resort with northern characteristics, developing leisure and sightseeing agriculture and family dining and lodging businesses, while every household grows vegetables, and with the added attraction of climbing Tianshen Mountain, it is sure to draw tourists from all over.
Even more encouraging is that in February this year, Hanguan County was designated by the National Tourism Administration as one of the first batch of "all-for-one tourism demonstration zone" creation units nationwide. After the call to build "rural tourism" was sounded, the cadres of the village two committees keenly realized that this was a major opportunity to accelerate the village's development and must not be missed under any circumstances.
Pictured: The grass-skiing and sand-skiing slopes under construction
Success often comes to those who are prepared. Starting last year, following the principle of doing the easy things first and pursuing rolling development, the village has avoided large-scale demolition and construction, instead slightly embellishing and beautifying the original folk-culture village buildings, turning stone into gold, and highlighting Hanzhuang's distinctive rural character. Roads have been hardened, landscaped and lit, garbage is cleared daily, and the village's appearance and the villagers' production and living conditions have been thoroughly improved. Sightseeing agriculture and family dining and lodging businesses are being developed, giving visitors from all around a new place to eat, stay and play. At present, the cadres of the village two committees have raised more than 4 million yuan by every possible means and completed the hardening of more than 10 kilometers of mountain roads running north and south. Construction projects including the grass-skiing slope, ski slope, sand-skiing mounds, fishing area and observation tower have begun to take shape, and the projects are expected to open to tourists in early July this year.
According to Party Secretary Li Yongbing of Hanzhuang Village, the overall plan for the village's beautiful countryside construction is scheduled to be fully completed in about 3 years. A company, Hanzhuang Village Tianshen Mountain Rural Tourism Development Co., Ltd., has already been established, and efforts are under way to seek strong support and assistance from provincial, municipal and county governments and relevant departments, and to find ways to bring in 200 million yuan for developing the "rural tourism" project. The goal is to develop Hanzhuang Village into a tourism area full of scholarly charm and folk characteristics, integrating sightseeing, hands-on experiences, dining and shopping. At the same time, the locally abundant dryland tomatoes should be graded, packaged or deeply processed to increase their added value, boost villagers' returns, and truly help Hanzhuang Village take off its poor label, pull out the roots of poverty and achieve prosperity through poverty alleviation.