On the evening of July 23, Du Feng, a well-known basketball coach, came to the village BA basketball court. China Youth Daily / China Youth Network reporter Lin Jie/Photo
In July 2022, a short video of a village basketball game in Taipan Village unexpectedly went viral online. On the field, the fight is fierce; On the sidelines of the arena, there were dense spectators. People banging gongs and drums, and others sitting on trees and setting up ladders to watch the game, it was as lively as the NBA arena. The village basketball game in Taipan Village, Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, was jokingly called "Village BA" by netizens.
In the past year of popularity, Taipan Village has hosted village basketball games. The local government expanded the stands, adding more than 10,000 seats and transforming more than 2,500 square meters of booths.
Around the basketball court, a small CBD (Central Business District) has formed in the village, which is small but extremely popular. In addition to fans, many people come to open shops, set up stalls and earn a bucket of gold here. On days when there is a basketball game, people "fly" here like "migratory birds" from all over the world to set up stalls or watch the ball. A few days ago, a reporter from China Youth Daily came to Taipan Village to visit the front and back of the stage outside the BA competition venue in the village.
_______________
Half a month earns two or three months
The permanent population of Taijiang County in Guizhou Province is only a few hundred thousand, and the Weng You River flows through the county seat.
In July, when the sun is scorching during the day, as soon as you walk on the Wind and Rain Bridge, the cool breeze blows, and the promenade is full of people sitting in the shade. Standing here, you can feel the quietness of this small county. At night, adults and children come out to chill out, and noisy human voices are also filled.
As soon as the vehicle arrived at the entrance of Taipan Village, the atmosphere gradually became warm. The signboard "Village BA Basketball Court" leads people to the main street of this village.
On both sides of the street, the eyes are full of lively red banners, or playing homophonic memes, or showing feelings. The hometown of the village BA is gradually revealed.
At 12 noon that day, there was a long queue at the entrance of the village BA basketball court. People raised their phones to scan the QR code, and then lowered their heads to make reservations on their phones.
There are still two hours to go before the game, which means people will be in the sun for two hours. A young man explained: "Go first to occupy a seat, you can't occupy a good seat if you enter late." ”
Outside the village BA basketball court, there is a large crowded stall. Some of the signboards on the stalls are Internet celebrities, and some are just simple A4 paper, and the booths of Dong Ximi and his sister look a little special.
On the beige earthen cloth signboard, there are several handwritten italics characters such as "village rice tofu". Several holes were pierced in the cloth and tied to thin bamboo poles with colorful decorative bands from the Miao family's clothing.
The stalls are filled with soybeans, folded ear roots, vinegar, sour soup and other condiments, and customers come to eat one after another. Dong Ximi and his sister neatly put a bowl of rice tofu, sprinkled with various spices, and then removed the bowls and chopsticks of the previous guests.
Dong Ximi and his sister's home is in another town, an hour's drive from Taipan Village. My sister usually sells rice tofu at home, but after the start of the "June 6" basketball game on July 15 this year, my sister rented a stall here and continued to sell rice tofu, and the business was very busy.
The local government planned the stalls, and the wooden countertops were painted brown and quaint. The stall has power and a locker. Dong Ximi said that in previous years, the stalls had to carry umbrellas everywhere to grab the stalls, but now they only need to pull the ingredients and prepare a few plastic stools, which is much more convenient.
Dong Ximi grew up accustomed to watching basketball games on the sixth day of June in the lunar calendar every year. The "June 6th Eating New Festival" is a tradition of the Miao family, and at this time of year, the rice in the rice grain takes shape, and the villagers pluck new ears of grain and sacrifice them to their ancestors, hence the name "eating new".
Dong Ximi has been playing basketball since the sixth grade of primary school, and his brother is a famous basketball player in the village. She remembers that she was always short as a child and began to grow after playing basketball. This year's "June 6" basketball game, her husband also participated.
A few years ago, when the "New Eating Festival" was celebrated, Dong Ximi was open all night. During the day, everyone dances the asparagus dance. When the evening cooled down, I started playing basketball, from dark to dawn. There is an endless stream of people coming to eat at the food stalls.
This time the stall, Dong Ximi and his sister specially made a few chic menu cards, one side is the Miao language "egg just digging Jiuga Diu", "Hammer Oh Toot Meng Jiu Gadi Diu", "Hair cover watering Jiuga Diu", turned over is Chinese, it turned out to be a variety of corn dumplings, "sugar honey corn dumplings", "crushed ear root corn dumplings", "cucumber silk corn dumplings". The corner of the brand is also pinned with Miao family silver jewelry, and the wind blows, clanging.
My sister steamed the corn dumplings at home in the morning and came to set up a stall at 10 a.m. There are also cold noodles and rice tofu, which are sold fresh. Dong Ximi said that setting up stalls for half a month during the basketball game can earn two or three months of income in normal times. When not helping her sister set up a stall, Dong Ximi took short videos of rural life and worked as a self-media blogger.
A few meters away is the basketball court, Taijiang County is located in the south of Guizhou, the summer daytime temperature is more than 30 degrees Celsius, the court is still full of spectators. The commentator explained the competition in the Taijiang dialect, occasionally popping up a few words in Mandarin. People left the arena and went straight to the food stalls.
Novice stalls have come into battle
On various stalls, the most common is ice powder. The weather in Taijiang is hot, and after eating ice powder, you can quench your thirst and cool off. The sisters Liu Na (pseudonym) occupied the intersection, and the stainless steel bucket contained ice powder made at home, accompanied by brown sugar water, cut into small pieces of watermelon, and colored gummies.
Liu Na is a native of her village and usually takes her children at home. After the village BA started, she thought about selling something. She made a large bucket of ice powder according to the simple version of ice powder she usually made for her children, and came to set up a stall, and people visited from time to time.
There are many novice stall vendors like Liu Na, and walking up the road, there are many young people who set up stalls on both sides of the road.
The novice stall is easy to identify, these young people look immature, and the small cart is hung with the camping tent lamp and the Internet celebrity advertising cloth. Lin Xin (pseudonym) and a friend set up a stall of fried potatoes, there were customers to buy, she hurriedly took out potato strips from under the cart, carefully dialed them into the oil pot that had just turned on the fire, and clumsily scooped the potato strips into a stainless steel basin, mixed with soy sauce vinegar, capers, and sour radish, at the urging of customers, she took out a paper bowl and carefully dialed the fried potatoes into the bowl.
Rodandin is much more skillful. On July 22, NBA star Jimmy Butler came to Taipan Village to participate in the event, becoming the first NBA star to visit the village BA. This day is also Rodain's first day setting up a stall here.
She and her friends taught themselves how to make lemon tea by hand, dressed in bright Dong costumes, wearing huge silver jewelry, holding measuring cups in one hand, pressing lemon juice rigorously like a chemical experiment, pouring a large number of cups, sandwiching a few fresh lemon slices, and adding water.
Luo Dandan is an elementary school teacher, usually likes to set up stalls, seems to be not afraid of the stage, and generously greets passers-by. This is her first time setting up a stall, "I used to be a local guy watching the game, they couldn't get used to the drink, and they thought it was too expensive." "A 10 yuan cup of lemon tea, the taste is slightly sour, in the face of five or six yuan a piece of ice powder, cold noodles, fried potatoes and other homegrown cold drinks or snacks, it is really not competitive enough.
There are a lot of tourists from out of town this year, and she thinks she can try it at a stall. Rodandan also hung several sets of national costumes next to the stall for tourists to rent.
Statistics from Taijiang County show that in the first half of 2023, Taijiang County received 1,178,300 tourists, a year-on-year increase of 58.54%. The county's comprehensive tourism income was 1.319 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 80.68%.
Change happens quietly
During the first ball game on June 6 last year, Liang Daping came to Taipan Village to see it. At that time, video of the game began to circulate online, but it was not yet popular. Liang Daping has been catering for more than 30 years, and she calculated in her heart that if this basketball game is popular, she can open a restaurant here to let everyone taste the authentic Kaili sour soup.
Kaili sour soup is famous in Guizhou, whether it is white sour soup fermented with glutinous rice, or red sour soup fermented with tomatoes and peppers, it can be used as the bottom of a hot pot to cook pork feet and hot vegetables.
In January this year, Liang Daping saw that there was a house on the side of the basketball court for rent, with a rent of more than 40,000 yuan a year. Not cheap for a small village, but this is the birthplace of the village BA.
Liang Daping rented it, simply built a kitchen, renovated the floor, installed lights, and began to sell crispy pig's feet hot pot. Liang Daping opened a hotel in Kaili City and hosted banquets, but she felt that opening a shop in the village was "tall and not in line with the environment of the village."
Taipan Village is more than 20 kilometers away from Kaili City, the prefecture capital of southeastern Qiandong Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, about half an hour's drive. On the days of basketball games, Liang Daping sent cooks and waiters over, and returned to Carey after closing in the evening. Ingredients are also shipped from Kerry. The pig's foot shop has been open for half a year, but it has only been open for about one month. Liang Daping said the new store can already break even. She also advertised her hotel in downtown Carey on restaurant walls, saying "occupancy is higher than before."
In the economic tide set off by the village BA, Dong Ximi and Liang Daping are one of the many tide makers.
In the past year since the village BA "out of the circle", the local government has handed over a brilliant economic report card: in 2022, the GDP of Taijiang County will be nearly 4.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9%, and the growth rate is the first in Guizhou Province; The per capita disposable income of rural residents is nearly 12,000 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.5%, and the growth rate is also the first in the province. Since 2022, Taijiang County's GDP has ranked first in Qiandongnan Prefecture for six consecutive quarters.
As the hometown of the village BA, Taipan Village has quietly changed this year.
Now, locals are used to facing the camera, and stall owners will generously welcome them in Guizhou Mandarin when they see someone taking pictures: "Douyin!" ”
Girls dressed in national costumes and wearing silver jewelry jingle past. Fashionable young people wearing slip dresses and crop tops also walked by with fans and small electric fans around their necks.
Taipan Village is full of traditional snacks such as rice tofu, cold powder, ice powder and so on, while Changsha stinky tofu, Thai tea, pancake fruit, Inner Mongolian kebabs and other foods that were not originally here, are also sandwiched in the middle, and there is even a Zibo barbecue that keeps pace with the times.
Liang Daping, who has been a restaurant for more than 30 years, has high hopes for this crispy pork foot shop, and she hopes to take advantage of the popularity of the village BA to make Kaili sour soup into a brand.
Liang Daping saw that in the past year, great changes have taken place in Taipan Village, "The villagers have become rich, and next door they sell rice tofu and cold shrimp, and the business is good." ”
"Where there are people, there is business," she said. ”
Zhongqing Daily · Zhongqing Net reporter Li Yajuan Source: China Youth Daily
Source: China Youth Daily
![There are still many "rare visitors" →[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)