The spring is warm, the blue waves of Erhai Lake are rippling, and the ecological corridor is full of greenery...... Since 2015, in order to protect the clear waves of Erhai Lake, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province has launched a series of strict protection and governance measures such as ecological corridor construction, agricultural non-point source pollution prevention and control, sewage interception projects around the lake, and ecological relocation.
The ecology of Erhai Lake is constantly optimized, from morning to night, from spring to winter, Erhai Lake is picturesque all year round, and tourists flock to it. The continuous emergence of ecological dividends has turned the scenery of Erhai Lake into a "money" scene, and these three pictures are the best proof......
The beautiful scenery of Erhai Lake seen from the Xindi Cafe. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Picture 1: "'Drinking' the scenery in an Internet celebrity coffee shop"
These days, every morning at 6:30 a.m., the Xindi Cafe located in Xiamo Village, Taihe Street, Dali City, Dali Prefecture, will open its doors early to welcome customers.
Why do you open so early? Welcome tourists who come to Erhai Lake to watch the sunrise.
Xindi Cafe is located on the edge of the Erhai Ecological Corridor, sitting in the coffee shop, not only the sunrise, but also the Erhai Ding Dar light, the rainbow after the rain, the sea cauliflower, and the red-headed gull...... You can enjoy the scenery all day and night, all year round.
On the balcony of the café, tourists can often be seen queuing up to take pictures with Erhai Lake as the background. A tourist said frankly: "I took the most beautiful photos in my life at the Xindi Cafe, and I didn't want to leave when I came here." ”
"From morning to night, there are a lot of tourists, at the peak of more than 4,000 people a day, and 99% of them are out-of-town tourists. "Xindi Cafe has become an Internet celebrity store, and the owner Du Jie has rented a new room to expand the space.
In fact, at the beginning of a series of strict measures to protect and control the Erhai Lake, Du Jie, like many villagers in Xiamo Village, did not understand.
The demolition of the houses that extend to Erhai has affected the business of many villagers who have opened inns.
laying of domestic sewage pipe network and construction of ecological corridor around Erhai Lake...... After a short period of pain, the scenery of Erhai Lake is more beautiful, and the number of tourists is increasing instead of decreasing, Du Jie saw the opportunity to rent a house and open a café behind the ecological corridor.
"After the completion of the ecological corridor, there are more than 100 times more tourists. Du Jie said.
In Xiamo Village, after walking around, you will find that many villagers take advantage of the proximity to the ecological corridor to open snack bars, cold drink shops, inns, handicraft shops, travel photography makeup shops, etc., and there is an endless stream of tourists who patronize them.
"It's not just coffee that's drinking, it's the scenery that's 'drinking'. Enjoying the dividends brought by the protection and management of Erhai Lake, Du Jie bluntly pointed out: "Cafes are inseparable from Erhai Lake, and the clearer Erhai Lake, the better my café business will be." ”
Tourists in the countryside of Xizhou Ancient Town. Photo by People's Daily reporter Fu Hao
Picture 2: "The field is full of people"
The spring breeze blows, the wheat waves roll in the countryside, and tourists can be seen everywhere wandering between the wheat fields, taking pictures and checking in...... This is the idyllic scenery of Xizhou Ancient Town on the shore of Erhai Lake.
Agricultural non-point source pollution used to be an important source of pollution for the water quality of Erhai Lake.
In the process of protection and management of Erhai Lake, Dali Prefecture has successively banned garlic and other large water and fertilizer crops planted in the Erhai Lake Basin. In Xizhou Ancient Town, the government has guided farmers to transfer land to enterprises, which have taken the lead in introducing biological control technology to carry out ecological planting of wheat, rice and other crops.
On the one hand, through projects such as sewage interception around the lake, agricultural irrigation water can be effectively prevented from flowing into Erhai Lake; on the other hand, through the construction of water-saving irrigation facilities, irrigation water is introduced into the wetland while saving water, and then reused as irrigation water after natural purification of the wetland.
While reaping the ecological benefits, the wheat and rice fields planted in succession are full of scenery throughout the year.
"In the past, there were only many tourists in Sifang Street, which is located in the center of the town, but it is also a leisurely stroll, and now the streets and alleys and pastoral fields of Xizhou are tourists all day long. Duan Yufeng, head of Xizhou Pastoral Branch of Dali Tourism Ancient Town Development Co., Ltd., introduced that since 2017, the company has transferred nearly 3,000 acres of land in Xizhou Ancient Town to carry out ecological planting.
"The fields are full of people. Duan Yufeng made a visual analogy to the tourists who took pictures and checked in the ecological countryside.
Nowadays, walking through Xizhou Ancient Town, you can see homestays, cafes, snack bars, handicraft shops and other shops everywhere, and the flow of customers is continuous. And for tourists who come to Xizhou, the countryside is a must-see scenery to check in and take pictures.
According to statistics, as an important tourist scenic spot on the shore of Erhai Lake, Xizhou Ancient Town has a maximum of more than 40,000 people per day.
The ecological pastoral of Xizhou Ancient Town is just one of the many landscapes that have been nurtured by ecological planting in the Erhai River Basin. Rape flowers and snow in the same frame, wind blowing wheat waves, egrets flying in the countryside, sunflowers, golden rice fields...... In the countryside of the Erhai River Basin, it is a scenery all year round, which has injected a steady stream of vitality into the development of Dali Prefecture's cultural tourism industry.
On the shore of Erhai Lake, a couple is holding a wedding. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Picture 3: A romantic wedding by the Erhai Lake
"Cangshan is the alliance, Erhai is the oath, in the coming days, we will walk hand in hand......" Under the blue sky and white clouds, a couple from outside the province wore wedding dresses and confessed affectionately, and under the witness of relatives and friends, they completed their romantic wedding on the shore of Erhai Lake.
Such a tourist destination wedding has become a new format in Dali's cultural tourism industry in recent years.
"Dali's tourist destination weddings began to appear around 2019 and have been growing at a rate of 200% every year since then. With the promotion of the protection and governance of Erhai Lake, as the operator of the Dali Wedding B&B venue complex, Zhao Canhui, President of the Destination Wedding Branch of the Dali Tourism Industry Association, also witnessed the rise of Dali tourist destination weddings.
He revealed that in 2023, more than 4,000 weddings will be held in Dali as a tourist destination, at least 90% of the customers are from outside the province, and the cost of each wedding will be between 20,000 and 500,000 yuan, and the output value will exceed 200 million yuan.
The rise of this "romantic economy" is "indispensable" to Erhai. It is thanks to the continuous promotion of the protection and management of Erhai Lake, the ecological corridor is full of green trees, flowers, rippling waves of Erhai Lake, flocks of water birds, and beautiful ecological scenery in all seasons, Dali has become the "best place for love confession" in the hearts of many young people.
"I have always wanted to find a place with water and hold a wedding I like, and when we came to Dali, we were immediately attracted by the beautiful scenery of Erhai Lake. Ms. Huang, who is from outside the province, and her husband held an open-air wedding at a hotel on the shore of Erhai Lake, and this moment of romantic experience has become her best memory so far.
It is understood that with the blessing of the beautiful scenery of Erhai Lake, at present, Dali has created more than 30 types of wedding products in tourist destinations, such as full-sea view waterway weddings, Cang'er lawn weddings, villa weddings, Bai courtyard weddings, etc., and there are hundreds of related enterprises specializing in tourist destination weddings.
Erhai Qing, Dali Xing. Good ecology breeds good scenery, and good scenery brings good "money" scenery. According to public data, in 2023, Dali City on the shore of Erhai Lake will receive more than 60 million domestic and foreign tourists, a year-on-year increase of 72%, and the total tourism revenue will reach more than 90 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 85%.
Source: People's Daily Online client
Editor: Ma Wen
Review: Li Zhengbo
Final review: Li Jianqi