Grape growing leads the way in Tibetan areas, becoming a new path to prosperity that villagers adore

CNR News, Beijing, October 5 (Reporters Jia Liliang, Liu Jun, Liu Tao, Jia Yichao) According to a report on China National Radio's "News and Newspaper Summary," October is again the grape harvest season in Xiama Village, Xiaojin County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan. In the fields and orchards, clusters of crystal-clear grapes hang beneath the green vines. In this fertile land that can rival the world's most famous wine-producing region——Bordeaux, France, grape growing has become a new path to prosperity that local villagers adore.

Xiama Village resident Yun Huaigang: “I've been growing grapes for 11 years, and (now) one mu of land brings in five or six thousand. I've planted more than 7 mu.”
Reporter: “So your seven mu of land brings in nearly 40,000?”
Yun Huaigang: “Yes, 40,000.”
In the past, Yun Huaigang's family relied only on growing potatoes and corn to make a living, and after a busy year they could not earn much money, so they could only rely on their children working away from home to supplement the household income. In 2002, under the government's guidance, Yun Huaigang and the villagers tried growing grapes together. Yun Huaigang said the family's income has now quadrupled compared with several years ago.
Yun Huaigang: “Growing corn brought in only a few thousand yuan a year. The government found this approach for us, so we seized the opportunity and set up this grape base.”
Considering that Yun Huaigang had no helpers, his children who had been working away from home have now returned to accompany him in tending the grapes, and the family is reunited and happy together.
Yun Huaigang: “The kids are at home growing grapes with me. It's much easier, and when there's time we still go out to have fun, driving there ourselves.”
From the anticipation of fruit setting to the joy of harvest, like Yun Huaigang, the lives of Xiama Village residents have changed along with the growth of the grapes. But however good the grapes are, sales channels still need to be opened. Xiama Village brought in a winery, combining the winery, the base and the growers, so that villagers can find a stable market for their grapes without leaving home. Not only in Xiama Village, a wine industry chain is taking shape in Xiaojin County, and the “Sichuan-Tibet Plateau high-end wine industry” has also begun to take shape. In Xiaojin County, while tasting wine, tourists can also enjoy the beautiful plateau scenery, feasting both their eyes and their palates.
Xiao Shan, deputy general manager of Jiuzhaigou Natural Wine Industry Co., Ltd.: “We adopt the company + base + farmer household model. Local people can work at the company, and the income from working each mu of land is more than 2,000 yuan per year. The development of this wine industry has already helped nearly 5,000 farmer households in Xiaojin County escape poverty and become better off.”
Xiaojin County's industrial model combining tourism and agriculture is also a microcosm of development in the western Tibetan areas. Places such as Aba and Garze in Sichuan have tapped their own advantages and developed distinctive agriculture and animal husbandry, advancing side by side with the tourism industry. This industrial transformation allows local people to enjoy the dual benefits of the agricultural economy and the tourism economy.
Amu Chu, director of the Tourism Bureau of Li County, Aba Prefecture: “One is the effective combination of tourism and agriculture, and the other is the effective combination of tourism and culture. We have always treated tourism as an industry that drives local people to become better off and increase their incomes.”
Reporter's notebook: “In the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province, under the bright plateau sun, green grape leaves are happily storing nutrients, waiting to flourish next year. Not many people know that this place, together with Bordeaux in France and California in the United States, is known as one of the world's three golden zones for wine grape growing, but the residents here are working hard to discover their own distinctive agricultural and pastoral advantages and explore a new path combining eco-tourism with distinctive agriculture and animal husbandry. It has preserved the white clouds and black waters of the Tibetan plateau while also driving the people to increase their incomes and become better off. Today in the western Tibetan areas, distinctive industries relying on their own ecological resource advantages have quietly emerged. The tourism industry and distinctive agriculture and animal husbandry industries are like two powerful wings, driving the people of the Tibetan areas to become better off and increase their incomes, and becoming an important driving force for economic development in the Tibetan areas.”
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