Poor Mountain Village Changed into Colorful Town

Photo and news from the Maguan Integrated Media Center

The lake is sparkling under the blue sky and white clouds, colorful dwellings are scattered among the green mountains, and colorful roads are built around the lake. This kingdom-like village in a fairy tale is Longshujiao Village, Ma'anshan, Mabai Town, Maguan County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Longshujiao Village which is now known as the colorful town was still a poor mountain village a few years ago. When it comes to the change of the village, the villagers attribute this to the in-pair assistance of Hongkou District, Shanghai.

Originally, the villagers here mainly lived on traditional crop cultivation and migrant work. There was no pillar industry to promote income increase in the village. With the development of poverty alleviation work, the villagers' dilapidated houses have been demolished, and new houses have been built, the roads in the village have been widened and hardened, and the lives of the poor people have been guaranteed. However, the situation of the villagers working outside the village and farming for a living has not fundamentally changed.

In 2018, aiding-Yunnan cadres from Hongkou came here, and sighed that the geographical advantages and natural resources in the village had not been fully utilized. Then, they cooperated with poverty relief cadres from Maguan County and began to work for Longshujiao Village. The aiding-Yunnan cadres from Hongkou District introduced enterprises to Maguan County to set up an agricultural company, coordinated 500-mu land owned by the mass of Ma'anshan to plant yellow peach and sweet orange pomelo, and developed characteristic fruit planting in the mode of "company + land + poor households", so as to solve the problem of increasing people's income. The project covers 19 village groups of 1 administrative village, benefiting 6,367 people in 1,436 households, including 476 people from 141 poor households who have been registered. It radiated and drove the surrounding villages to grow over 600-mu economic fruits. In 2020, after the first batch of fruits matured and were picked, with the support of the Hongkou district government, they were transported to major shopping malls in Shanghai for sale as high-quality poverty relief products, which gained popularity by Shanghai citizens and were in short supply.

In order to further promote the development of the village, in 2019, the aiding-Yunnan cadres from Hongkou and the Mabai town government actively won 9.65 million yuan of Shanghai-Yunnan cooperation project fund from the higher authority to build the Longshujiao Colorful Village. In October, the Longshujiao Colorful Tourist Village, which owned facilities including the tourist reception center, the flower sea, the pool, the sand pool and the leisure corridor with a total investment of 10.5 million yuan, was built and opened to the public. It immediately became a new popular tourist attraction in Maguan County, attracting a large number of tourists from inside and outside the province, including many Shanghai citizens.

In order to further promote the cultural tourism resources of the in-pair assistance area and help the development of the cultural tourism industry of the in-pair county, Hongkou invited the relevant units of Wenshan Prefecture and 34 travel agencies to participate in the activities by holding the Wenshan Tourism Resources Promotion Conference. The travel agencies in Hongkou District have set up 10 special tourist routes to take the citizens to travel to the in-aid assistance areas.

With the increasing number of tourists, some young people of Longshujiao Village returned to home to start their own businesses. Farmhouses, snack bars, boutiques and small supermarkets are distributed in the village, and the per capita net income of villagers increased steadily. Since its completion, Longshujiao village has received over 40,000 tourists and achieved tourism income of more than 100,000 yuan.

At present, with the support of Shanghai-Yunnan project funds, Mabai Town has built three scenic spots, including Masa Ethnic Tourism Village, Poba Grassland and Longshujiao Colorful Village. Nearly 10,000-mu land of characteristic fruits and vegetables have been planted, and a number of modern agricultural industrial parks related to high-quality peach, sweet orange pomelo, rosa roxburghii tratt and crisp sweet plum have been gradually formed, consolidating the effect of poverty alleviation and continuing the rural revitalization.

The change of Longshujiao Village is only a miniature of Hongkou's in-pair assistance to Yunnan over the years. Next, Hongkou will go on guiding and driving the local people to become rich and well-off through industrial support, cultural and tourism promotion, production and marketing combination and other forms.