On July 6, 2018, at the Yangshan Peach Trading Market in Yangshan Town, a merchant was sorting out peaches. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Bo
Nanjing, 9 Jul (Xinhua) -- In the summer, walking into Yangshan Town, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, which is known as the "hometown of peaches," you can smell the sweet fragrance of peaches everywhere.
At dawn, Zhang Jianxie, a 57-year-old peach farmer, took out a basket of freshly picked peaches from the orchard, sat on the bench and began to pick and pack boxes. Seeing that the paper boxes were piling up more and more, he looked down at his glasses to wipe away the beads of sweat, and the corners of his mouth inadvertently revealed the joy of the harvest.
"Look, this courier is sent to Guangdong, and these are to Beijing." Zhang Jianxi pointed to the courier bill and told reporters that in the past, the peaches were sold on the flat shoulders to the docks and railway stations to sell, and now they are all express delivery; their peaches generally sell for 15 yuan, and the most expensive unit price can reach 50 yuan. "Now the peaches are sold on a per-person basis, and the cooperative formed by our 6 farmers can sell about 1 million yuan a year."
Zhang Jianxie and many other peach farmers said that it is not difficult to plant good peaches in Yangshan. On the one hand, the local government has set up a peach farmers association to carry out door-to-door training in scientific and technological peach planting, e-commerce entrepreneurship, brand marketing, etc., on the other hand, it holds peach blossom festivals, music festivals, picking festivals and other activities every year to continuously expand the popularity of peaches.
As China builds a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and actively promotes the strategy of rural revitalization, the life of villagers in the vast rural areas like Yangshan is getting more and more moist.
"What is sweeter than the Yangshan peach is the gradually rich life of the common people!" Zhang Jianxie said that the Fengxiang Village where his family is located used to be a dilapidated village, and the old house leaked water as soon as it rained, but with the government's renovation of rural housing in recent years, the village has a new look, not only has a small bridge flowing water, park pavilions, and every household also lives in an elegant single-family "villa".
These changes stem from Yangshan's insistence on "a peach road to the end". Peach juice, peach gum, peach blossom wine, peach blossom mask... The local area has formed a format for the integrated operation of peach products. According to Yang Guozhong, secretary of the Party Committee of Yangshan Town, the annual output value of Yangshan peaches in 2020 will reach 395 million yuan, the total output value of the peach industry chain will exceed 1.5 billion yuan, and the per capita disposable income of residents will be nearly 55,000 yuan.
Exterior view of Fengxiang Village in Yangshan Town after the renovation and construction of farmhouses. (Courtesy of Yangshan Town)
Nowadays, in addition to growing peaches and selling peaches, Zhang Jianxi's usual life is to drink tea with his neighbors, fish and fish, and he is quite leisurely and self-satisfied. In his view, Yangshan people have savings, basically do not worry about food and clothing, many people think about how to enrich their amateur life.
"'Peach sweet, jingmei, happy life' is our beautiful vision of yangshan rural revitalization." Yang Guozhong said that in parallel with the villagers' income increase and prosperity, Yangshan vigorously carried out the construction of beautiful villages around the peach culture, took the transformation of farmhouses as the starting point to improve the living environment, gradually realized the "one village and one theme", and at the same time excavated natural endowments, launched the four-season brand of "spring flowers, summer peaches, autumn entertainment, and winter baths", and continued to promote rural cultural and leisure tourism, welcoming more than 2 million tourists last year.
"The days in my hometown are getting more and more 'sweet', and we have come to taste the 'sweetness'." Zhou Yuandong, the owner of the homestay "Yangshan Old Zhou Family", once started a business in Nanjing and other places, and decided to return to his hometown in 2018 to open a homestay and a farm, and the current business is very prosperous.
"Rural revitalization is a big opportunity, and the people are well-off, and the rural environment is more pleasing to the eye." Zhou Yuandong said that Yangshan people have a good life and a good mentality, and they expect more people to open their doors to welcome guests and run homestays, so that the popularity of Yangshan is getting more and more prosperous.