Village secretary talks about development

The Bai-style buildings are very eye-catching at Hequn village.

Zhong Baiyu, the Party secretary of the village, warmly received the reporter in the meeting room of the village.

"Hequn Village has undergone radical changes after 10 years of precise poverty alleviation, with the per capita income increasing from 980 yuan 10 years ago to 18,000 yuan now, an increase of 18 times. In addition, the village’s collective economic income has risen from zero to 1.5 million yuan. Three pillar industries have played a key role," said Zhong Baiyu when talking about the development of the village.

The three pillar industries consist of about 67 hectares of high-quality rice, 80 hectares of yellow peaches and 20 hectares of ugly oranges, as well as characteristic breeding of black goats, sows and free-range chickens.

The most successful at present is the high-quality rice cultivation, with an annual production of 125,000 kilograms of rice, which sells for 20 yuan per kilogram and up to 60 yuan per kilogram in the market, achieving an annual sales income of more than 2 million yuan. This can increase the income of village's collective economy by more than 1 million yuan.

"Our next step is to develop fine agriculture, improving the breeds of yellow peaches and ugly oranges to increase profits. At the same time, we will expand the scale of characteristic breeding and improve the level of scientific farming," noted Zhong Baiyu when speaking of her plans for the further development of the village.

Before 2007, Zhong Baiyu had worked in Sangzhi County, running restaurants, hotels, dancing halls and skating rinks. Located in deep mountains, Hequn Village is only 21 kilometers away from the county, but it takes several hours to drive back on the roads full of bumps and hollows.

Every time she returned to the village, she felt very upset to see the broken wooden houses and patched clothes of villagers. Therefore, she had a dream of starting a business with her fellow villagers at her hometown.

In May 2007, Zhong Baiyu was elected as the secretary of the village Party branch after returning to village. At that time, there was no industry, no source of income and even no place for meetings.

The first thing that Zhong Baiyu did was repairing the village headquarters, but it would take at least 200,000 yuan. Thinking hard, she had no choice but to borrow 135,000 yuan, which was used to build the village offices in a year.

Taking advantage of her being a deputy to the National People's Congress, she persuaded Liu Yu'e, former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial People's Congress, to organize the Party Branch of Retired Cadres of the Provincial People's Congress to Hequn Village for pairing assistance.

From 2012 to 2021, after the efforts of Liu Yu'e and the retired Party branch of the Provincial People's Congress, Hequn Village received more than 30 million yuan in financial support for many projects. In 2017, Hequn Village was listed as a poverty alleviation village assisted by the Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau.

Therefore, the roads were repaired, the electric was connected, and the tap water was available for every household. In 2020, Hequn Village was lifted out of poverty as scheduled, and in 2021, it was rated as the "National Advanced Collective for Poverty Alleviation".

"We are now exploring the development model integrating agriculture, culture and tourism," Zhong Baiyu said with confidence. "Many people come to visit and carry out Party building activities as the vilage becomes well-known. It can receive a few thousand people a year, so we take this opportunity to develop tourism."

It drew numerous visitors due to its good ecological environment--beautiful mountains and clear water, as well as the ecological protection zone for giant salamander. In 2019, a total of more than 6,000 visitors were received.

Nowadays, a pastoral complex integrating agriculture, culture and tourism is being built in the village to develop rural tourism. Visitors can pick yellow peaches, enjoy flowers, taste tea, etc.

The village and Zhoucheng Village in Yunnan Province have become sister villages. It invites professionals from Zhoucheng Village to teach Bai culture and tie-dyeing skills, which aims to prepare for the construction of "tie-dyeing workshop" for the production of Bai clothing.