Friend guide
"Longtang Sample Version of Rural Revitalization" is an innovative public welfare project created by Youcheng Foundation, Sunac China and other partners in Longtang Miaozhai in Leishan County, Guizhou Province. Since the launch of the project in 2017, Longtang Village has indeed changed a lot, worthy of the name of this project.
Behind the achievements of Longtang, in addition to the rural revitalization partners from all walks of life such as government departments, Youcheng Foundation, Sunac China, and excellent designers, there are also local talents in Longtang - many of whom have taken the lead in "doing things" in their hometowns, returning to their hometowns from other places for various reasons and considerations, using their own capacity building accumulation over the years to improve their lives and their families' lives.
What are the reasons for the "dragons" who returned to Longtang to return to their hometowns to start a business? What happened to them when they came back? Today, we tell you a real story beyond the formal project report.
These stories record the mental journey of longtang entrepreneurs who have returned to their hometowns, and for the narrators of the stories: Hu Jiahao (author), a volunteer of the Youcheng Little Eagle Project who has been stationed in Longtang for several years, spent time with these Longtang characters in the story and deeply participated in their lives, and Wei Haolong, an official of the Youcheng Project, these true records of longtang people are also the life marks of their serious work and life in Longtang over the past few years.
01 Lotus Pond Yayuan
In the southeast of Qiandong, where various ethnic groups gather, there are hundreds of villages similar to Longtang. Compared with the neighboring Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village, Longtang has long appeared obscure. Nowadays, the original unremarkable Longtang, rural tourism is in the ascendant, just like a pool of turquoise outside the window, the small lotus only shows its sharp corners.
In the window, a middle-aged man in a blue-dyed T-shirt snuffed out the cigarette in his hand, made a determined look through the thick lenses, and said to several young people sitting next to him: "This is the last time, and I will not participate in the weekly meeting in the future." This is the meeting of all the directors held by the Longzhitang Rural Tourism Professional Cooperative, and the middle-aged man is the chairman Wen Chong.
Compared with the chairman of the cooperative, Wen Chong's more familiar identity is the chairman of the village committee. This year, in addition to stepping down from the cooperative, he will also end his second term in the village committee. Although there were voices of retention in the village from time to time, he had already made up his mind. On the one hand, he gradually felt powerless in his fifties; on the other hand, he was also worried that his presence would limit the young man's ability to show his skills. "I can't play the role of a young man in my words. Don't worry too much. Walking without wrestling, who learns to walk? ”
The landscape space of the village has changed with his ideas. The venue of the meeting is a three-story building with brick houses on the ground floor where villagers live; the second and third floors are wooden buildings, which are cooperative-run homestays. Everyone used to call it "No. 2 Homestay". That's right, it also has a "number one" brother. Not far away, a wooden building is hidden in the swaying lotus leaves, named "Lotus Pond Yayuan". These two boutique guesthouses not only retain the appearance characteristics of the Miao family's wooden stilt house, but also integrate the interior design in line with modern living habits. After completion, the cooperative also organized a visit by villagers as a demonstration for farmers to carry out homestay renovation.
There are no lotus flowers in Longtang, and even qiandongnan is rare. In order to create a characteristic landscape, the cooperative rented several paddy fields from the villagers, planted lotus flowers, and the quaint farming scene was renewed, attracting tourists to stop and punch.
Lotus Pond Garden
02 Floating Cloud Wanderer
In 2013, Wen Chong, who worked for a foreign trade company in Guangdong, often received phone calls from his hometown. The wife and children and the old mother lived together in Kaili City, the capital of Qiandongnan Prefecture, thirty or forty kilometers away from Longtang's hometown, when the traffic was inconvenient, on the other end of the phone, the old mother frequently cried to her son who was far away crying and homesickness, hoping to move back to his hometown. In addition, at that time, his son was in a period of rebellion, and Wen Chong, as a father, knew the impact of his long-term absence on the growth of his children. However, the career map that has been so hard to lay down is difficult for him to give up easily.
The Taiwan-funded enterprise where he worked, mainly engaged in the finished shoe trade, after years of hard work, Wen Chong was promoted to the director of the mainland area, for a person who grew up in the depths of the mountains, such an achievement is enough to make many people envious.
The matter has not yet been determined, but the news that Wen Chong is about to return to his hometown has spread among the villagers. All along, he has been the object of admiration of the people in the village. Young people, in particular, often use his achievements as a goal of going out to work. Zhu Desheng, who also worked hard in Guangdong and later returned to the village to open a commissary, also had his own considerations. "I called him and I said can you come back, and I hope someone like you comes back and makes a name for yourself." Longtang does not need people who are uncultured, unintended, and have no opinions. His words represent the voice of many young people. They hoped that Wen Chong would run for the chairman of the village committee and lead Longtang to develop the economy.
At that time, although Wen Chong considered returning to Guizhou, he never thought of running for village director. Slowly, as the idea of going home became clear, he couldn't help but think about his future life. In his forties, he has the foundation and experience, and still has the impulse to do things, why can't he return to his hometown to play? Moreover, if you return to your hometown and settle down, your daily life is closely related to the village, can you really stay out of it? It is better to do it yourself, build the village well, and live a comfortable life at home. After thinking about it again and again, he finally replied to Zhu Desheng: "If you choose well, you will come, and if you can't choose, you can't forget it." ”
In 2014, before he could leave for his hometown, villagers elected him to the position of village committee chairman. In this way, under the entanglement of family affection and nostalgia, in the prosperous years of his career, he left Guangdong, where he had worked hard for twenty years, and returned to his hometown to start the second half of his life. Years later, when he had finished the trial of village work, he said bluntly: "If you only consider my personal career, coming back is not the best choice." I am still more suitable for foreign trade. ”
03 Building roads and finding dreams
In Wen Chong's first term, the appearance of Longtang was greatly improved. In 2017, the road connecting the neighboring village of Dongshanping to Leishan County was widened and hardened, shortening the driving time to the county seat to thirty minutes. In the same year, the new highway from Longtang to Liancheng Estuary was also opened to traffic, and the highway was connected in just a few kilometers, and the driving time to Xijiang Qianhu Miaozhai was only 20 minutes. At this point, Longtang, which was originally "afraid of the aroma of wine and the deep alley", jumped into the midpoint of "Shangtong Xijiang Scenic Area and Down Leishan County".
Roads and gates
If the road through the village is the blood vein, then the path through the village is the capillary. These pipelines have also been opened one by one. Pavements and ditches have been trimmed and hardened, and solar-powered street lights have lit up the way home for night pedestrians. In addition, the village committee also applied for government industrial funds to build a 2,000-meter-long trail around the mountain, which not only facilitates villagers to work on the mountain, but also provides tourists with an excellent perspective overlooking the terraces. Walk along the stone path, with deep mountains and old forests overhead, and human fireworks at your feet.
In the second year of Wen Chong's appointment, under the model of "one village and one society", Longtang established the Luxin Agricultural Professional Cooperative. As the name suggests, the two words "Green Xin" express the beautiful expectation that "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains", and "agriculture" is the main business scope of the cooperative. During this period, the cooperative undertook industrial poverty alleviation projects at all levels of government, including the cultivation of tea, grapes and medicinal roses, as well as rice and fish farming.
In 2016, villager Zhu Dejun originally planned to build a bungalow for pigs. After Wen Chong learned the news, he encouraged him to change the bungalow into a tea processing factory. Zhu Dejun accepted Wen Chong's suggestion, purchased a set of tea-making equipment, went out to learn tea-making techniques, and opened the first tea processing factory in Longtang. However, tea also needs to enter the market through distributors, who often use poor quality as an excuse to depress prices. In addition, because the equipment and technology are not mature enough, the processing plant does not dare to buy fresh leaves of good quality. Some villagers prefer to run far and sell fresh leaves to higher bidders.
Longtang is more than 1,000 meters above sea level, and the carp raised in the cold-water fields of the mountains are healthy and full of taste. However, slow growth, small size, coupled with inconvenient transportation, so it is difficult to enter the market, mostly for home consumption.
Longtang is rich in cabbage, almost every household is growing, known as "Xijiang good girl, Longtang good cabbage" reputation. Pan Zhifu, the backbone of the villagers, once contacted the county government and negotiated cooperation on the supply of vegetables. However, after a period of implementation, customers believe that longtang's vegetable varieties are relatively single, and they have to make up for the lack of dishes through other channels, which brings inconvenience to the procurement staff.
As for medicinal roses, there is also no processing plant in the village. The flowers picked by villagers can only wait for foreign manufacturers to buy, and the purchase price of primary agricultural products is often very low.
Wen Chong, who is well versed in the habits of the people in the city, repeatedly mentioned on various occasions that Longtang should take the development path of rural tourism. However, the tour can not be without content, otherwise it will become a place to take photos and punch cards, and the drive is limited and difficult to sustain. Therefore, it is necessary to develop agricultural products and agricultural experiences. He told the villagers: "You can't abandon farming, the people in the city love to see this." Tourism is the porter of the product. When tourists come, things can be sold. ”
Wen Chong explained to tourists
04 Dragons return to the pond
According to legend, an old ancestor took a hunting dog up the mountain to hunt, and suddenly met a flying dragon. After the hounds chased back, the hunters found that the dogs' legs were stained with dirt duckweed. So he followed the hounds to the edge of a mountain pond and settled and multiplied into the current Longtang Miao Village. In 2017, some villagers took shares and established Longguitang Agricultural Culture and Tourism Development Co., Ltd. Villagers hope that the wanderers who have gone out to Jackie Chan will return to their hometowns and join the ranks of developing rural tourism.
At that time, Wen Xingren, who was still opening a hotel in the county town, would meet Wen Chong every three to five to come to the store to talk about things. The movement in his hometown aroused his interest, and Wen Chong was also in urgent need of young people who had the heart to do things. So, the two hit it off. Wen Xingren worked part-time to run orders and do accounts. In just one or two years, the village has successively built landscape buildings such as pavilions, bullrings, wind and rain bridges and tourist promenades, forming a tourism supporting facilities that have begun to take shape.
It was also in this year that the Youcheng Entrepreneur Poverty Alleviation Foundation, formerly in charge of the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office (now the National Rural Revitalization Bureau), came to Leishan to select a designated village to help, saw the enthusiasm and potential of Longtang people, and identified it as the object of assistance. The following year, Youcheng Foundation introduced Sunac China to donate funds to set up the "Youcheng-Sunac Precision Poverty Alleviation Special Fund" project.
In 2018, Luxin Agricultural Professional Cooperative was reorganized into "Longzhitang Rural Tourism Professional Cooperative", marking longtang officially entering the fast lane of rural tourism. The first thing that lies in front of Wen Chong is the issue of talent. For his many years as a supervisor outside the home, the most important thing for managers is to "let others play to their strengths." ”
Due to the entry of Youcheng and Sunac, the villagers have a different imagination of the future of Longtang. Wen Yuansheng, who was still "drifting north" at this time, was one of them. After graduating from junior high school, he began to work around, accumulating a wealth of experience that was not commensurate with his age. He thought that "at his own level, no matter how much you mix outside, you can at most become the director of the factory." Mixing well outside is just a personal success, and it doesn't help the village as a whole. Do a good job in your hometown, and have a greater sense of accomplishment. What makes it even more difficult for him to let go is that the four-year-old daughter in the family has been separated from his parents for a long time, and he has always been indebted to this. After weighing many things, he decided to return to his hometown with his wife. Soon he joined Wen Chong and became the youngest "elder" of the cooperative.
Wen Yuansheng (left) sorting out the membership card (photo by Wei Haolong)
This winter, the weather was unusually cold. Wen Xingren opened a hotel by the river, and the source of customers plummeted, and the door was full of birds. This made him reconsider the possibility of returning to the village. In his thirties, he first worked around, and then he spent seven or eight years in sports cars, because he was a second-hand car, the situation was continuous, and he could only end his career as a professional driver early. Now the hotel business has plummeted. After running around for many years, the idea of returning to the village has long been born, but it has always lacked reasons and opportunities. At The invitation of Wen Chong, Wen Xingren closed the hotel and returned to the village to become a full-time employee of the cooperative.
Wen Xingren prepares farm tools for tourists who pick folded ear roots
In addition to them, the cooperative has three other full-time employees. They are all young people who are recruited by Wen Chong, and each is responsible for different business sectors. At the beginning, the monthly salary was only 800 yuan, and everyone was doing things with a sense of public welfare. As the income of the cooperative gradually increased, the wage slowly rose to 2,000 or 3,000 yuan. But this little money is still not as much and fast as going out to work. Later, the employees of the cooperative came and went, and there were some changes. But Wen Yuansheng and Wen Xingren have always stuck to the future they believe in. In addition to working in the cooperative, each of them also invested 20,000 yuan in the cooperative, and transformed their house into a homestay, which can be described as a deep participant in rural construction.
After the introduction of the Youcheng Foundation, the well-known domestic public welfare institution Xiangjian Institute helped the cooperative design a built-in financial model. The shares of the cooperative are divided into qualification shares, respect for the elderly and xiangxian shares, each of which is 500 yuan, 2,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan respectively. Under the premise of voluntary membership, there are 206 villagers who have joined the cooperative with qualification shares, and 25 elderly people who have joined the cooperative with respect for the elderly. In addition, there are 22 "country sages". They are the initiators of the reorganization of Luxin into the Dragon Pond Cooperative, and they are also the directors of the new cooperative. Wen Yuansheng and Wen Xingren are two of them. These shares, together with the capital injection of the Youcheng Foundation, have supported the mutual aid sector of the cooperative and funded the development of production by the villagers. The interest earned is used to pay dividends to members who subscribe to respect for the elderly every year. For the villagers, "village sage" is undoubtedly an unfamiliar concept. "Originally, they all had selfish intentions to make profits for themselves, as an investment. In fact, there will be no dividends and no withdrawal of shares within three years, and selfless dedication. After taking shares, some townspeople found that they had misunderstood the original intention and put forward opinions to the cooperative. After the resolution of the board of directors, it was finally resolved by allocating two shares to the "xiangxian" after three years.
Cooperative directors discuss (Photo by Wei Haolong)
05 Learn by doing
With the emergence of new things and the expansion of contact areas, people's abilities and concepts are also changing. But it doesn't happen overnight.
In order to provide a place for tourists to stay, in addition to building No. 1 And No. 2 Homestay, the cooperative has also introduced a three-year interest-free loan method to encourage villagers to convert their houses into homestays. Most of the Miao family wooden buildings are spacious, and Wen Yuansheng, who has a lot of empty houses in his home, has borrowed 50,000 yuan from the cooperative and converted them into rooms suitable for reception. At present, there are nine farmers' homestays in the village, each with its own characteristics and different prices. Visitors can choose their preferred room through the cooperative.
Although he participated in the homestay management training introduced by the Youcheng Foundation, it was not until he received several tourists that Wen Yuansheng slowly found his feelings. "It must be faced personally, and the problems found are improved. Practical operation is easier to remember than theoretical learning. Now, he is particularly afraid of receiving tour groups with too low offers, because they are "demanding and low-priced, and if they do it at this price, they will be badly evaluated." "His first focus is not on maximizing profits, but on the guest's sense of experience." If you can't get too busy, you won't pick up too many guests to fill the room. ”
He takes great care to maintain customer relationships. "Try to make them feel like home, like eating and chatting together." After returning to the village, through the intensive training introduced by Yusei, he also learned to blow reeds and often entertained guests at the dinner table. "Send some small gifts when you check out, and add WeChat to each other." As a result, the original price of one hundred and five, when the guest left, gave three hundred.
Wen Xingren, who also runs a homestay and is in charge of the tourism services sector of the cooperative, is also constantly adapting to his new identity. Whenever a group of tourists came to play, he had to personally go to the battle, prepare meals and experience activities with the villagers. "It was very difficult at the beginning, and dozens of people would be busy when they came. Later, after doing several large-scale activities, the potential was forced out. After finding the trick, in the last few receptions, he stopped cooking himself and concentrated on co-ordinating.
As for the homestay he runs, he still does it himself. Haifa Miaojia is the name of the homestay, and Haifa is his Miao name. Young tourists who stay will affectionately call him Hai Ge. Perhaps because of his long career in the service industry (drivers and restaurants), he is sensitive to the guest experience. Since deciding to make a homestay, he has been extremely concerned about the beautification of the environment in his home. Inside and outside the original monotonous courtyard wall, peach blossoms and walnut trees were planted. During the flower season, different wildflowers are also planted indoors. Whenever tourists came, he would take them to the field to catch fish, and then concoct a pot of Miaojia sour soup fish. Once, a team came to Longtang for an event and stayed at his house for a few weeks, and one of the team members left with tears in his eyes and said that he would come back next year. When he first returned to the village, he also wondered if there were really tourists coming. "It used to take three or five years to do what it is now, but it has now exceeded expectations. As long as it is done well, more young people will come back. ”
For the entry of Youcheng and Sunac, Wen Yuansheng frankly said: "Before the idea was relatively simple, there was hope when the resources came." After nearly three years of exploration, he has a deeper understanding. "If the intervention of external forces is too strong, the villagers will be dependent and sit and wait for food." After Sunac donated to build a high-end homestay, companies with a keen sense of business came to talk about investment and build hotels, but in the end they were rejected. "It's not good to get on too fast and be anxious for the village." If you invest a few hundred million at once, it may be hot for a while. But the price of house prices in the village rises rapidly, and guests will complain. Longtang is too small to bear. "On the contrary, after Youcheng comes in, whether it is the renovation of the homestay or the operation of the cooperative, the villagers can participate in it." Even if you can't do it in the future, your ability has been exercised, and there are people who want to go outside. "Focusing on human development is the true meaning of poverty alleviation."
This can also be reflected in the Longtang Mountain House, which opened last year. Youcheng invited the well-known architect Meng Fanhao to preside over the design, and the perspective was just enough to overlook the village and terraces. After entering into an agreement with the cooperative, a hotel management company acquired the right to operate the homestay, received 30% of the revenue profits, and was responsible for training the village's employees. Now, in addition to the external manager and chef, the housekeeper and waiter are all from Yamashita. "I never imagined I could work on my doorstep." Yu Sheng, the housekeeper of the same young man who returned to his hometown, said.
In this regard, Wen Chong, as a manager, has a more comprehensive consideration. "Professionals do professional things. Just like a good façade, radiating down the mountain, gradually improving the reception capacity and service awareness of the people. At the same time, he often urges young people in the village to "improve their business level and not be tied up by the outside team." ”
Longtang Mountain House (Photo by Wei Haolong)
06 Other sounds
Multiple external forces, either thrust or resistance, add to the uncertainty. After several years of trials, Wen Chong's mentality has also changed. "I used to have the idea of doing things during my tenure, but now I am slowly decreasing. Because many things are not self-controlling, such as the need for government support. "In addition, support within the village is even more indispensable. He realized that there was an inherent tension between the chairman of the village committee and the chairman of the cooperative. "The village committee pays more attention to the balance of the whole village, and the cooperative first values the benefit." A former company executive, he understands the importance of the system. "Cooperatives, like companies, must have a sound system." But he soon discovered that "working in the village is not like a company." If the people don't listen to you, they can still enjoy the fruits. If a company employee wants to receive a salary, he must listen to you. In fact, as a collective economic mutual aid organization under the leadership of the two village committees, the cooperative is composed of villagers, serves the villagers, and is supervised by the villagers. Sometimes, however, collective and individual interests are not synchronized.
As he said, the cooperative shared the fruits of poverty alleviation with the villagers from the very beginning. Wen Yuansheng still remembers the first dividend of 2018. "Although the profit mainly comes from the consumption of poverty alleviation product orders, it is still very rewarding." When the villagers took the cash from him, they instantly realized that the children of the past had become adults who could stand alone. In 2019, the whole village was lifted out of poverty. Up to now, the cumulative dividend is more than 500,000 yuan.
Even with such achievements, some villagers still take a wait-and-see attitude towards cooperatives. In conversations, some villagers would use the phrase "from a few of your cooperatives" to refer to these young people who worked for the collective good. In fact, everyone is a member of the club, which part is you and me? They don't believe that anyone would stay in the village and do things for a much lower salary than part-time work. "Since you're sitting here, there's definitely something good for you." On the other hand, in the eyes of the old farmers who have been thrown on the land all their lives, it is only right to go down to the field and plant the land.
Wen Chong dividends to members (Photo by Wei Haolong)
Villagers who have finished their work rest in Longtang Mountain House
For the different voices that appeared in the village, Wen Chong was also angry at first. Cooperatives are for the benefit of everyone, so why are they not welcome? Later he figured it out, if he was angry about it, it wouldn't be possible. "To do things in the village, we must have the spirit of public welfare." But don't worry too much. Villagers may not understand at first, but there must be a day when they understand you. ”
In May, the lotus pond has opened its green umbrella and swayed in the wind. Wen Chong expects that it will take three to five years for Longtang to normalize rural tourism.
Following the boom of rural tourism, Wen Chong also decorated several rooms in his home, named "Baochang MiaoJia". His commonly used WeChat nickname is also named Baochang. During the Republic of China period, the armor protection system was implemented, ten households and one A, and ten A and one bao. In terms of the population under its jurisdiction, baochang was similar to today's village chief. Among them are the good men who protect the border and the people, as well as the evildoers who act arbitrarily and arbitrarily, and who use the "joint guarantee to sit together" to kill the people. They generally play a negative role in film and television dramas. People around Bayu have even developed "Baochang" into a pejorative adjective, meaning "unsociable, unenlightened, weird." No one knows whether Wen Chong took this into account when he first took the name into account. Maybe he knew it, maybe he thought about it, and then replied, "Let them say go." ”