Mountain village gets taste of good life
Two years ago, an aerial photo of a breathtaking colorful autumn forest went viral online, drawing thousands of visitors to the mountain village of Miaoba, deep in Jinfo Mountain in Nanchuan district, Southwest China’s Chongqing.
This small village of about 400 people which had long suffered from poverty is now a popular travel destination for city dwellers, thanks to its fresh air, mild climate and stunning scenery.
As a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site, the Jinfo Mountain scenic area boasts primitive karst geological features, rare stones, mysterious caves, adventurous cliffs and historic temples.
But in the past, the villagers could not benefit from the stunning beauty of the green mountains due to limited arable land and poor transportation infrastructure.
Because of the topography, the ground is rocky, and the meager soil can hold little water. The villagers mainly relied on corn, potato and sweet potato for living.
In recent years, this isolated village has stuck to the path of green and sustainable development and transformed its lush mountains into mounds of gold and silver by developing three industries: Chinese herbal medicine huanglian, or coptis chinensis, honeybee farming and tourism.
The villagers’ average net income per capita has risen from 4,600 yuan ($682) in 2014 to 28,000 yuan in 2019.
Cheng Kunxiang, 57, now the Party chief of Miaoba, has been spearheading the way to help his fellow people out of poverty in the past decades.
In 1978, he became a village film projectionist after he finished junior high school. At that time, he was among a few people in the village who had received proper education. He could earn 15 yuan for projecting one film in the village, which was a decent salary back then.
But the young man was not satisfied with the income and started the first grocery shop in the village. As his business was expanding, his fellow villagers elected him as the
director of the village committee in 1992, hoping he would lead them to a better life.
“The average altitude of Miaoba village is 1,300 meters above sea level. The soil and climate are suitable for the growth of coptis chinensis. Planting this valuable Chinese herb can be a good way for my village to get rid of poverty,” Cheng says.
He took the lead to learn how to plant coptis chinensis. In 1995, he earned 20,000 yuan from the herb planting and then the others followed quickly. The village finally had a profitable industry for the first time in history.
Cheng became village Party chief in 2010 and shouldered bigger responsibility to explore new ways out of poverty.
“Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” President Xi Jinping had said in 2005, when he was the Party chief of Zhejiang province. This inspired the village head.
“Nearly 90 percent of our village is covered by woods and it is a perfect place to run honeybee farms,” he says.
Miaoba is located within the provenance reserve zone of the eastern honeybee (Apis cerana), a Chinese native bee species. So Cheng led the villagers to build the bee farms. This industry turned out to be a big success too, bringing the village 1.6 million yuan output value in 2019.
Thanks to the fast transportation development, newly paved roads have connected the mountain village with outside world, bringing more visitors.
“We have beautiful scenery throughout the year and people can enjoy spring flowers, summer cool breeze, autumn leaves and winter snow,” the village chief says.
In 2014, Cheng moved first again. He renovated his own house and turned his six bedrooms into a home stay. He earned about 20,000 yuan in the first year.
Encouraged by his success, more villagers joined the business. In 2019, tourism generated 2.1 million yuan for the village.
“The green mountains are the most valuable resource for us,” Cheng says. “We must cherish and protect this beautiful environment.”