Hefei, October 29 (Chu Weiwei, Zhang Yazi, Liu Honghe) Driving along the Jianghuai Watershed Scenic Road, we came to Jingnan Village, Shiji Town, Nancheng District, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, surrounded by mountains like Dai tea gardens, staggered houses with steps up, and green plants and colorful flowers dotted on the walls of the courtyard. In recent years, relying on the beautiful natural environment, the local area has revitalized idle housing resources, promoted the integrated development of agriculture and tourism, and turned the countryside into a "scenic spot" with a "beautiful economy".
"Jingnan Village relies on the existing tea mountain tea resources, using idle farmhouse land to develop tourism, homestays, agricultural product processing and other industries. At the same time, the natural features of the village are preserved, so that the countryside can become a beautiful home where you can see the mountains, see the water, and retain homesickness. Zhang Yanyan, mayor of Shiji Town, introduced that the collective income of the village increased from the "empty shell village" with zero income in 2014 to 500,000 yuan in 2020, which not only drove economic development, but also solved the needs of villagers to work nearby.
Jingnan Village is located at the foot of the western mountain of Langya Mountain, at the top of the Yellow Chestnut Tree Reservoir, which is a hilly area. In recent years, with the acceleration of urban construction, a large number of farmers in the village have settled in the city to work, traditional industries have declined, idle homesteads have been uninhabited for a long time, resources are wasted, and economic development is weak. In 2019, the village explored a new model of rural revitalization, focusing on characteristic industries, activating the stock assets, natural resources and human resources of the village group, and promoting industrial efficiency, ecological value-added, and increasing the income of farmers and village collectives.
Jingnan Village uses idle houses to transform the homestay Zhang Yazi photo
"The 'beautiful economy' environment comes first." Zhang Yanyan introduced that in 2019, the village carried out centralized rectification of the village collective idle homesteads and residences, taking the improvement of the living environment as the breakthrough point, demolishing illegal buildings, ruined walls, and abandoned circle shacks, simultaneously carrying out reclamation and greening, and building a number of public welfare projects such as the village history museum, the new era civilization practice station, the village public service center, and the farmer activity center.
"The curve is also more convenient for the car, the road is good, and the tea farmers are convenient." Wang Shoubing, a villager in the village, told reporters that the newly built No. 4 Highway of his villager group was even more spacious than the "Village Pass" highway in the past. Nowadays, the village not only has facilities such as a tea culture hall, a large stage in the village, a basketball court, etc., but also villagers can see cinema movies in the rural cinema without going to the city.
While rectifying the environment, the local government organically combines the construction of beautiful villages with the strategy of rural revitalization. According to Zhang Yanyan, at the beginning of 2019, the municipal state-owned tourism company and the district, town and village jointly funded 50 million yuan to develop new industries and new formats such as leisure agriculture, rural tourism, catering and homestay, and cultural experience by leasing idle homesteads and houses of villagers, injecting a "solid" economy into the "empty shell" villages, driving more than 100 local villagers to employment, with a monthly income of 2,000 yuan.
Now, the local homestay has developed into a "net red punch card" for surrounding tourists to come. Here, the old houses and abandoned pits and ponds of the past have been transformed into infinity pools, starry sky huts, and boutique book bars. "We have renovated and upgraded the original house structure to integrate modern design into the traditional local atmosphere." Meng Hongli, head of the "Jingnan Mingsu" homestay, introduced that every holiday, more than ten guest rooms are "difficult to find a room", and during this year's National Day, 15% of tourists come from the Yangtze River Delta region.
Zhang Yanyan said that in the next step, Jingnan Village will explore the connotation of tea culture around the tea garden, build a tea brand, do a good job in the tea industry, and develop tourism folklore, agricultural experience, leisure tourism and other formats. Strive to build Jingnan Village into a beautiful new countryside integrating agricultural industry and rural tea culture tourism. (End)
Source: China News Network