People's Daily - People's Daily Overseas Edition
Songhua Village, Songjiang Town, Antu County, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Antu County CPC Committee
In the warm winter sun, the Korean folk tourism village that has been silent for a long time due to the epidemic - Songhua Village, Songjiang Town, Antu County, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, is gradually booming.
Walking in the village, the eyes are clean and tidy, the road is lined with houses full of Korean characteristics, and from time to time you can see three or two tourists taking out their mobile phones to take photos. Enthusiastic Korean families beckoned, "Welcome in." ”
"The number of tourists is slowly increasing. Affected by the epidemic, group tours have decreased compared with the same period last year, but the interest of individual customers to play is still very high. Watching the village regain popularity, a big stone in the heart of Li Shujun, head of the Korean Folk Tourism Service Professional Cooperative in Songhua Village, finally fell.
From a poor and backward village, it has transformed into a "net red" tourist village with beautiful environment and popularity, and when it comes to the changes in the village over the years, the villagers often talk about Li Shujun, a "foreigner".
Songhua Village is located at the foot of Changbai Mountain, and the villagers are basically Koreans, which is a typical Korean village. In the early years, it was not easy for "outsiders" to take root in the village, but Li Shujun did it, and now she has multiple identities in the village: deputy secretary, good girlfriend, and head of the cooperative.
In 2010, Li Shujun, who has been in the tourism industry, came to Songhua Village and rented a small house of more than ten square meters. "It is close to Changbai Mountain, the mountains and rivers are beautiful, and the Customs and Habits of the Korean People are well preserved, which is especially suitable for tourism." Li Shujun said.
It's hard at first. As soon as she entered the village, Li Shujun encountered trouble: some villagers were not enthusiastic about the development of tourism, and they were not very willing to let her engage in tourism here.
What to do? Li Shujun explained to the villagers one by one, and the village cadres and some enthusiastic villagers also followed to help. Among them is Park Dong-tae, an 82-year-old Korean villager.
"From childhood to adulthood, I often deal with Han Chinese, and the relationship has always been very good, and now I still have a Han brother living next door!" In Park Dong-tie's view, whether it is Han or Korean, living in a village is a family, "and people come to the village with everyone to develop together, where is the reason for not supporting it?" ”
Do it while persuading. Li Shujun began to take her lover and several people in the village to attract tourists and sell local souvenirs.
Park Dong-tie also joined in. "I'm too old to follow them around, so I plant cucumbers, corn, and tomatoes in my garden." Tourists can go to the vegetable garden to pick, and then take them to visit their own house, nagging home. More than a year of income of three or five thousand yuan, but also to relieve boredom. "In the past, Park Dong-tetsu basically spoke only Korean, but now he speaks fluent Mandarin.
Tourists are coming, and the popularity of Songhua Village is getting stronger and stronger. Li Shujun took advantage of the opportunity to dig deep into the Korean culture and customs and folklore, Korean dances such as long encouragement and elephant hat dance, Korean residential accommodation, spicy cabbage, miso soup, rice sausage and other Korean specialties... These Korean specialty projects attract a large number of tourists to Songhua Village to punch in. In one month, the number of tourists in the village increased by tens of thousands, and everyone's income also increased. Tasting the sweetness, the villagers became enthusiastic and supported Li Shujun to develop rural folk tourism in the village.
In line with the wishes of the people, Antu County has also increased its support for the development of tourism in Songhua Village in recent years, investing nearly 20 million yuan to improve the infrastructure of the village: hardening the roadway, renovating farmhouses, building hedge walls, building new drainage ditches, installing solar street lights, repairing and protecting historical buildings, building multi-functional village departments and cultural squares... The whole village has a new look.
In front of the new village department, the reporter saw a propaganda column: there was a lively scene of the Masses of the Dprang and Han Dynasties holding a throwing contest together during the Dragon Boat Festival, a warm picture of people of all nationalities gathering together on the Old People's Day, and a happy scene of tourists from afar playing rice cakes and making spicy cabbage. At the top of each photo, a line of large red characters is particularly eye-catching: the flower of unity blooms everywhere, and the national sentiment has a long history.
This year, tourism in Songhua Village has been greatly affected by the epidemic. Many villagers took out money and quietly handed it to Zhu Yuanzi, secretary of the general branch of the village party, and asked her to hand it over to Li Shujun, hoping to help the cooperative survive the difficulties.
"They all now think of her as a good girlfriend for themselves!" Usually, she sends things every New Year's Day, but now that her baby is in trouble, they must help. Park Dong-tie said.
"The environment is beautiful, the development is good, the people's hearts are good, and all nationalities are like one family." Zhu Yuanzi told reporters that in recent years, there have been some people in the village, but no one has said that they are "outsiders", "This is the common home of everyone." ”
At the same time, the National Ethnic Unity and Progress Model Collective, the Provincial Health Model Village, the Provincial Ecological Demonstration Village... Honors pour in.
"Pine blossoms, pine flowers, small villages are my home, the charming countryside is picturesque, folk customs are praised by the world, come, come..." In the evening, accompanied by a song "Song of Songhua Village", people of all nationalities gathered in the cultural square of the village, dancing brisk square dances, and the harmonious picture of prosperity was fully displayed here.