Returning to my hometown during the Spring Festival, I returned to Qujiawan Town, Honghu City, Hubei Province, and after the reunion, I often heard the words, "There are too many people who come to the town to visit red tourism", "The farm products at home can be sold through live broadcast", "There are more and more young people returning to their hometowns".
I have the impression that during the Chinese New Year, many people either stay at home or go out to travel to the big scenic spots, why are there more people visiting this red town in their hometown this year? Why are more and more young people in the village returning to their hometowns and talking about live broadcasts?
With these questions in mind, I interviewed some villagers and found the stories behind the live streaming "influencers" and young people who had returned to their hometowns.
More and more villagers are eating "red tourist rice" at their doorsteps
The water of Honghu Lake is the waves, the waves are the waves, and the shore of the Honghu Lake is the hometown. The boat goes to cast the net early in the morning, and comes back in the evening with a full cabin of fish...... "During the Spring Festival, walking into the red old street in the center of Qujiawan Town, the familiar melody of "Honghu Water Waves Hitting the Waves" has been echoing in my ears.
In the old street, the mottled bluestone pavement, the old houses of the Hui style with black tiles and white walls, stretch along the crooked street.
The century-old street is as beautiful as yesterday. On both sides of the road, dragon and phoenix cakes and carpenter shops...... The once prosperous merchant stores have been reopened in the past few years, and the store decoration has been restored to the old appearance to the greatest extent, and the settled merchants are still engaged in the business of the year.
Qujiawan is a piece of red land, He Long, Zhou Yiqun, Duan Dechang and other revolutionary martyrs of the older generation have fought bloody battles here, the capital of the former revolutionary base in western Hunan and Hubei is located in this old street that has experienced vicissitudes, this old street has 39 old revolutionary ruins, it is the national patriotism education demonstration base, the national famous red education base.
"We have received more than 600 visitors this morning, no, we just introduced the red story here to some tourists, and we expect more than 1,000 visitors to visit today. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, there were many tourists in the old street, and Qu Zhaoli, a docent who was over sixty years old, had a hoarse voice, but his spirit was still vibrant.
The spirit of the old revolutionary base area has also inspired local young people to return to their hometowns. The red gene is implanted in the bloodline, inspiring them to dedicate light and heat to this red hot land.
Qu Wei, a young man born in the 90s, was born in this old street and then grew up. Later, after the unified planning of Lao Cai, their family moved to a place across the river from Lao Cai. A few years ago, when the shop reopened, he came back to run the shop and became a volunteer docent.
"I grew up here, I have a deep affection for this place, and now I am in the old street every day, listening to the earth-shattering revolutionary stories that come out of the narrator's loudspeaker, and I want to do my part to let more people understand this red history. Qu Wei said.
The increasingly prosperous red tourism has driven many villagers in the town to eat "tourist meals". During the Spring Festival, the merchants at the entrance of the scenic spot are very busy.
"There are too many people visiting here this year, Honghu lotus root noodles, Honghu lotus seeds, Diaozi (a small fish), spiny loach and other specialties have been sold out by tourists as soon as they are put out. Qu Li, a small trader, smiled from ear to ear.
In addition to allowing the people to eat "tourist meals" and increase their income, many people are also thinking: how to polish this red business card more brightly?
"At present, in addition to the shops that have already opened, there are also some new merchants who have signed contracts. Some of the shops will continue to use the old store names, and open pastry shops, candy shops, wine shops, etc., so that visitors can enjoy a better immersive and contextual experience. At the same time, six theme scenes of 'night festival, night stay, night market, night food, night exhibition and night show' will be added to create a good experience of night tours. The relevant person in charge of the education base introduced.
It is understood that at present, Qujiawan is upgrading to build a red town, developing red tourism products, building a red training center and a red exhibition area, and using a variety of scientific and technological means to "live" the red history.
At that time, tourists from all over the country will come to Qujiawan to visit the old streets and visit the exhibition area, truly realizing the deep integration of culture and tourism, and the life of the villagers will be better day by day.
"Not doing her job", she brought goods to the Spring Festival Gala live
On the eve of the Spring Festival, Zhao Cong, the "Internet celebrity" in the town, became the focus of discussion throughout the Spring Festival because he participated in the Spring Festival joint party in the city.
Zhao Cong majored in computer science in college. After graduating from university, he worked in Wuhan for a few years, and then resolutely gave up his job in Wuhan in 2018 and chose to return to his hometown to start an e-commerce business and sell lotus roots in his hometown.
When she first came back, the villagers were still unfamiliar with e-commerce, and Zhao Cong took her mobile phone to shoot videos every day, and relatives and friends felt that she was not doing her job. Many villagers in the village also pointed fingers at her, and there were many discussions, and their words were full of ridicule. As fellow villagers, these villagers got together and began to gossip: "Look at Zhao Cong, he used to work in a big city, no, he couldn't get mixed up, so he ran back." ”
This made Zhao Cong's parents very angry for a while, but they had nowhere to vent, so they could only be angry with Zhao Cong. But Zhao Cong didn't care about these at all.
In the beginning, Zhao Cong and her cousin opened an online store to sell Honghu's lotus pods, water chestnuts and other agricultural products. However, in 2020, the online store went out of business. At this time, short videos have become a new outlet, and many people have begun to try live broadcasting. After the two discussed, Zhao Cong also began to live broadcast on Douyin to bring goods and continue to sell Honghu's agricultural products. Seeing that others have brought goods and issued a lot of orders, and the results are full, Zhao Cong is also full of confidence.
When you're ready, you start streaming. Zhao Cong's live broadcast room is Lotus Pond. She stood in the lotus pond and introduced the lotus pods for sale while broadcasting live. At that time, the lotus pond was full of lotus leaves, full of lotus flowers and full of lotus flowers, and it was very beautiful.
But it is such a good view, Zhao Cong was in the first few months, but only a few or dozens of people watched it every day, and sometimes she couldn't sell a single order in a day, which made her full of disappointment and even a little disheartened. "The blow was quite big, and I didn't start the live broadcast for a while, and I have been regretting whether I shouldn't have come back from Shenzhen. Zhao Cong recalled.
The turnaround occurred on a rainy day in August 2020. In a live broadcast in the lotus pond, the sky suddenly rained heavily, she held the lotus leaves, like when she was a child, she ran from the other side of the pond, her clothes were wet, but she was still "silly" laughing happily, changing the previous restrained "line" wind, and said to the camera in a chattering style, "It's raining heavily, I can't go back", and introduced to the camera that the lotus seeds after the rain are particularly delicious.
After this video was uploaded to the short video homepage, the number of views reached 1 million in two days.
Zhao Cong also took the opportunity to restart the live broadcast. It was the season of water chestnut harvesting and lotus pod picking, and she sold more than 200 orders of water chestnut and lotus pod at once, and her confidence was re-established.
Once the video gained attention, sales went up. In addition to short videos, Zhao Cong also increased the frequency of live broadcasts. In this way, the "two-pronged approach", on average, she can harvest 500-1000 orders a day, which is a remarkable achievement. In the winter of 2023, she will also join forces with other anchors to help farmers sell lotus roots live broadcasts, helping lotus root farmers in her hometown sell 200,000 catties of lotus roots.
The villagers saw the changes that the live broadcast had brought to the sale of agricultural products, and no one questioned that she was no longer productive when she went home. They began to tell Zhao Cong's story to their children who worked outside the home, and the young people's eyes were dragged back to their hometowns, and all kinds of live broadcast rooms took root in Lotus Pond. Zhao Cong sometimes sighs that 3 years ago, there was only one person doing Douyin e-commerce here, and now there are almost 50 of them.
The increase in the live broadcast room has also had a cascading effect, in the season when various agricultural products are on the market, the anchors are pouring into the farmers' homes, digging up the lotus root pond is still in short supply, and the unit price has also risen, the original 5 yuan a kilogram of lotus root has risen to 6 yuan a kilogram, totaling to an acre of land, and farmers can earn thousands of yuan more.
The development of live broadcast e-commerce has changed the local agricultural product sales environment, which has also strengthened Zhao Cong's confidence and motivation to do live broadcasts.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, Zhao Cong participated in the Spring Festival joint party held in Honghu City, and sang on stage with several other "Internet celebrities" with goods. On stage, she said: "Now is a good situation that has never been before, in 2024, we must be a good anchor of agriculture, agriculture and agriculture, and continue to lead everyone to get rich together." ”
More and more young people returning to their hometowns are looking forward to writing their own wonderful stories
Testing water quality, catching soft-shelled turtles, communicating with customers all over the country...... This is the daily work of cousin Qu Qi during the Spring Festival. On such days, Qu Qi has been persisting in his hometown for 3 years.
"This year has begun to make a profit, and all the income during the Spring Festival represents profits, and the soft-shelled turtle project is a preliminary success. For the past three years, the 37-year-old has been recommending the project to the villagers around him, and this year he has become more persuasive.
Since he was a child, Qu Qi has always been "someone else's child" in the mouths of his parents and the surrounding villagers. He excelled in his studies since he was a child, studied abroad, and later began to do business abroad after returning to China. In 2020, he ended his business and returned to the village to raise soft-shelled turtles.
His decision was the same as the situation Zhao Cong faced when he came back, and his parents had a hard time understanding his decision. "The old man thinks that he sent me to study hard and saw the outside world, why did he return to the countryside to do such a 'side-of-the-road' industry. ”
Qu Qi rented a fish pond in confusion between his parents and the villagers, imported soft-shelled turtle fry from other places and purchased breeding equipment.
Qu Qi said that the local nostalgia brought him a lot of warmth. In order to rent a few houses of the villagers, he went to the villagers' homes to negotiate with the other party. "The villagers are all elders, but they don't know much about the industry, and they want me to 'learn from the way'. But for the sake of my determination to start a business, I rented it to me at a very low price. ”
After initial exploration, Qu Qi has fully mastered the breeding experience, and he is ready to lead the villagers to expand the industry with him in 2024. "If I make an appearance first, they will be able to follow me with confidence. ”
During the Spring Festival, Qu Qi recalled that when his parents first asked him why he had returned, he did not answer positively. What he remembers is that when he was a child, he walked on the ridge with his classmates after school, and his neighbors were uncles and uncles, and he played with his friends in front of and behind the house.
"The village was very lively at that time, and if the village became stronger, people would be willing to move back again, or would be willing to come back and see. Qu Qi said his responsibilities include revitalizing his hometown.
Like Qu Qi, who wants to revitalize his hometown, there are many young people in the village, including Chen Peng and Zhou Qilin.
After the Spring Festival, Chen Peng did not plan to go out to work anymore, he circulated 50 acres of shrimp ponds in the village, preparing to breed crayfish.
"Mom and Dad have been breeding crayfish at home, this industry has been getting bigger and bigger in recent years, although I can earn more than 100,000 a year in the past, I can not take care of my parents when I am far away from home, they are also old, I will not leave next year, and I will not leave next year, and I will not transfer 50 acres of shrimp ponds, and they will do it together. If it goes well, earn more than you would be outside. Chen Peng said.
Zhou Qilin is not ready to go out to work anymore because he sees the opportunities brought by short videos, and he also wants to stay like Zhao Cong to do short videos and live broadcasts.
"E-commerce live streaming has given us ordinary people too many opportunities, and I also knew a little bit about this when I worked outside in the past, so it is not a good idea to start all over again when I come back. I plan to shoot some rural short videos at home first, increase some traffic, and then come to the live broadcast to bring goods, I believe that when we return to our hometown, each of us can have our own wonderful. For the future, Zhou Qilin is full of confidence.