Returning Entrepreneur Develops Agricultural Sightseeing Park to Boost Villagers' Income and Prosperity
Beihai's sand, **'s sunflowers, Fujian's jujubes... under the careful planning of returning entrepreneur Liu Qin, these rarities for Neijiang are converging from all corners of the country to three villages in Xindian Township, Dongxing District. Within a foreseeable two to three years, these once poor and backward mountain villages will be linked together by an agricultural tourism sightseeing park covering more than 3,000 mu, encompassing hundreds of flower and nursery species and dozens of visitor experience projects.
Last year, Dongxing District vigorously implemented the "Homecoming Project" for returning entrepreneurship, attracting a group of outstanding entrepreneurs like Liu Qin to return home and develop. It not only promoted employment but also found a breakthrough for activating the rural industrial economy and helping villagers escape poverty and become prosperous. At present, Dongxing District is implementing eight major "Homecoming Projects" to attract people who have gone out to return and develop, and has already built 3 returning entrepreneurship parks to provide quality services for entrepreneurs.
1 Entrepreneur Invests 500 Million yuan in Tourism
Liu Qin, who had been out in the world for many years, had previously been deeply engaged in the construction industry for a long time and had rich experience in scenic area development. In October last year, amid the great wave of returning entrepreneurship under Dongxing District's vigorous implementation of the "Homecoming Project," Liu Qin, a native of Shuangqiao Town in Dongxing District, returned to his hometown and transferred more than 3,000 mu of land in Shuangliu Village, Jingu Village, and Douya Village of Xindian Township, to develop and build an agricultural tourism sightseeing park integrating agricultural production, ornamental experience, leisure and wellness, entertainment and fitness, and accommodation and dining, with a total investment of 500 million yuan.
The main attractions of the sightseeing park are a waterfall and a thousand-mu lotus garden, so Liu Qin named the park "Tianhe Waterfall." According to him, the first phase of the Tianhe Waterfall project mainly features a waterfall, a vegetable corridor museum with more than 400 varieties, and a thousand-mu flower sea, as well as visitor experience projects such as drifting, surfing, children's water play, beach sand sculptures, grass skiing, rock climbing, fish-catching competitions, bamboo rafting, traditional farm tool displays, and visitor farming activity practice, and is expected to open to the public on June 1 this year. The second phase mainly includes a wildlife park, horseback riding ground, bungee jumping, camping, and villa cluster accommodations. The entire project is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.
On March 2, the reporter came to the Tianhe Waterfall project site and saw a bustling scene of construction. Amid the roar of bulldozers, large tracts of land were being reclaimed, and on hillsides, in farm fields, and along riverbanks, busy workers could be seen everywhere. Flower and nursery seedlings that had been cultivated were being transplanted onto the leveled land, and rugged mountain roads were about to be transformed into clean and beautiful sightseeing paths. At the edge of a cliff, the pillar framework for one of the project's main attractions, the waterfall, had already been erected, echoing distantly with the thousand-mu flower sea that had already begun to take shape around it.
After driving around the entire "scenic area," Liu Qin felt very proud of the current construction progress: "When we started work on October 15 last year, this place was still large tracts of wasteland!"
Liu Qin said that when work first began, he told everyone that he would open the first-phase landscapes to the public on June 1 this year, and many people immediately shook their heads and said it was impossible. But very quickly, Liu Qin "conquered" the doubters with his actions. In order to complete the first-phase landscape project before June 1, apart from staying at home for nearly half a month during the Spring Festival, Liu Qin spent the rest of the time at the construction site, from morning to night, more than ten hours a day. Just like that, in only a few short months, the former wasteland advanced step by step according to Liu Qin's vision, rapidly moving closer to the planning blueprint.
2 Driving Prosperity
Poor Mountain Villages Welcome a Turning Point for Industrial Poverty Alleviation
At the Tianhe Waterfall project construction site, it was almost impossible to find outside workers. Villagers from nearby villages, wearing clothes of various colors, bent their waists like bows and vigorously swung their hoes on the red earth, as if working on their own land.
In fact, not long before, this land had still all been the village's land. But before being transferred to Liu Qin, this land had not brought the villagers a prosperous life.
Shuangliu, Jingu, and Douya villages, where the Tianhe Waterfall project is located, are 3 relatively poor villages in Xindian Township, Dongxing District, about 30 km from the urban area. Due to remote geographical location, poor transportation, backward villagers' thinking, and weak agricultural infrastructure, modern agricultural industry had never been able to develop, and villagers lived by heaven's mercy, making life very difficult. About 60% of the young and middle-aged labor force went out to work, the villages were severely "hollowed out," and large tracts of land faced the risk of being left barren. Shuangliu Village in particular was listed among the province's key poverty-stricken villages, and currently has 45 registered poor households.
In recent years, the Neijiang-Suining Expressway was completed and opened to traffic, with an exit built within Xindian Township, which not only changed the original transportation disadvantage of these 3 villages but also brought the villagers here a turning point to change their fate.
In advancing the work of poverty alleviation, Dongxing District combined infrastructure construction with industrial development, attracting migrant workers to return home and start businesses, and driving local people to escape poverty and become prosperous. Through the recommendation of relevant people, Liu Qin took a liking to the natural conditions and transportation advantages here and decisively chose this site for his tourism park.
Now, villagers transfer their land to Sichuan Jingu Lake Agriculture Co., Ltd., where Liu Qin is based. In addition to receiving land rent and sharing profits through land equity, they can also earn some labor fees by working in the park.
At prices ranging from 400 yuan to 500 yuan per mu, Feng Zhengbi, who lives in Jingu Village, transferred out most of her family's fields. She herself also found odd jobs at the construction site, earning dozens of yuan a day, and at least a thousand or eight hundred yuan a month.
"Having work to do is always better than sitting at home playing mahjong. Although I don't earn much, I can take care of housework and work at the same time. Isn't that great!" A person in charge in Xindian Township said that the Tianhe Waterfall project is the core area of the ten-thousand-mu lotus fragrance modern agricultural ecological park built by Xindian Township and one of the three major modern agricultural parks built as a priority in Dongxing District. The project has found a breakthrough for activating the village's industrial economy and helping villagers escape poverty and become prosperous. It is not only a returning entrepreneurship project, but also a typical project of industrial poverty alleviation.
It is reported that after the project is completed, it will benefit about 5,000 people in 3 villages and will create at least 200 jobs for local villagers. At the same time, optimistic about the park's prospects, many villagers have already begun planning to open agritainment businesses around the park. At present, the township has collected applications from 27 households, and after unified planning and unified training, they will be deployed uniformly according to the actual situation of the park. In the future, the company will also give back to local people through annual profits and implement "one helps one" assistance for registered poor households in the village.
3 Building Nests to Attract Phoenixes
Dongxing District Officially Establishes Three Returning Entrepreneurship Parks
Last year, Dongxing District vigorously implemented the "Homecoming Project" for returning entrepreneurship, attracting a group of outstanding entrepreneurs like Liu Qin to return home and develop. According to a person in charge in Xindian Township, the township will soon welcome more than 20 returning entrepreneurs one after another.
The reporter learned that last year Dongxing District launched eight major "Homecoming Project" investment sectors, including industrial transformation, innovative development, rural reform, "Internet Plus," livelihood improvement, infrastructure, resource matching, and capital cooperation, for returning investors to choose from. For this purpose, it also issued a series of preferential policies covering registration discounts, tax and fee reductions, subsidized loans, and venue support, creating good opportunities for returning entrepreneurs.
At the same time, starting in the second half of 2015, Dongxing District actively planned, and on the basis of clarifying its family assets, through multiple on-site investigations, decided to use its own regional and industrial advantages and rely on existing parks and idle land and other resources to gradually establish 3 returning entrepreneurship parks, namely "Tianjia Returning Entrepreneurship Agricultural Park," "Gaoqiao Returning Entrepreneurship Technology Nursery," and "Beinan Returning Entrepreneurship Renewable Resources Park." On January 18 this year, all 3 returning entrepreneurship parks were officially inaugurated.
It is reported that all 3 parks have separately established management committees, established and improved various work management systems, publicly posted returning entrepreneurship policy measures and work contacts on the wall so that returning entrepreneurs can promptly understand and enjoy the policies, and also provided entrepreneurs with policy consultation, venue rent subsidies, and water and electricity fee reductions to lower the preliminary costs of starting a business.