Once-isolated mountain village escapes poverty through ingenuity, infrastructure
Knitting is a booming industry in Dachong village, Hezhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. (WANG KAIHAO / CHINA DAILY)
Before a drivable road finally reached this stockade village up the mountain in Hezhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in 2018, the only way there was by foot.
With the nearest town about four hours away, residents of Dachong village were besieged with a difficult life. Nearly 500 people from 87 families live there — home to the Tuyao community, part of the Yao ethnic group.
Tuyao, or “indigenous Yao”, describes the ethnic group’s well-preserved traditional lifestyle and culture, and how its development was once blocked by poor transportation links.
Ancestors of Tuyao people migrated to Hezhou about 700 years ago. However, as better farming lands had already been occupied by locals, these “new residents” had to climb the mountains, where there was little land for cultivating crops.
Pan Qinglan, a 44-year-old woman, brought wild tea leaves, ginger and wood to the next town to exchange for oil, rice and other food.
“The path was dangerous,” Pan recalled. “But we had no choice. It was hard to grow crops here ... We set off when it was still dark. To stave off the fear, we walked in groups and always sang songs.”
The area’s changeable weather made landslides a regular occurrence. On sunny days, cliffs and rivers remained obstacles.
“Fairs were organized several times a month in the town,” she said. “We would make sure to get everything we needed in a single visit.”
Villagers’ “shopping tours” took two to three days, including overnight stays in the town.
Pan smiles recalling the tough years. First-time visitors can only imagine the old days of Dachong, which has over the years experienced a huge shift in fortunes.
According to Zhao Wanxing, Party chief of Shidong — the village complex of which Dachong is part — in 2014, about 90 percent of people in Dachong lived under the poverty line. Annual income per capita was just over 3,000 yuan (US$433).
“This is the debt left by history and nature which we have to pay,” Zhao said. “Upon hearing the news there would be a road built, many villagers volunteered to join the construction team. They learned quickly from construction workers.”
Work on the paved roads began in 2016. In 2018, almost 10 million yuan in funding from central and local governments was allocated to improve local infrastructure.
Pan and her husband, Feng Qiubao, were among the first to join the construction.
Pan said: “Building a road was our biggest dream.”
Entering Dachong, people will see stone slabs paving the entry of the stockade, carefully chosen from leftover construction materials as “a monument” to mark the locals’ great effort.
It now takes the couple half an hour on motorbike to reach the town.
Dachong villagers value their past. Before electricity was wired into the village in 2008, people relied on a dynamo system to generate power.
“We take care of the dynamo and exhibit it in the village, making sure it still functions well,” Feng said. “That not only bears our nostalgia but also reminds the younger generation to cherish the better life they have today.”
After realizing their “biggest dream”, villagers soon found new aspirations.
In 2018, Zhou Huafeng, a tea entrepreneur from Hunan province, was invited by the local government to Dachong to explore opportunities for boosting the local economy. At first glance of the village’s old houses, he was overjoyed.
“Once I saw those earthen houses, I thought of my childhood,” Zhou recalled. “Such traditional architecture used to be common in my hometown, but has almost disappeared as people’s lifestyle has changed.”
Rural resident Pan Manbao (left) and his wife, Feng Qiugu, have benefited from a better local economy in recent years. (SHI RUIPENG / CHINA DAILY)
For Zhou, those earthen houses — more specifically their dark, well-ventilated wooden attics — would be perfect warehouses for the natural fermentation of dark teas.
“I found that some villagers also used their attics to store tea in stacks of gunnysacks,” Zhou said. “What I needed to do was to inherit that tradition so that it could benefit more people.”
Pan Jieyin is from one of 12 Dachong households participating in Zhou’s project — “raising”, or aging tea. He used to sell wood and do odd jobs.
Now, every morning and evening, he lights a small bonfire to smoke the tea. Done to fully arouse its aroma, this is a key process in the tea’s fermentation, which can take over a year to complete. With dark teas, the longer the fermentation, the more valuable the product. All he must do is rotate the tea packages routinely to ensure they are evenly smoked.
Seeing neighbors demolishing their old houses and building new ones, Pan Jieyin initially wanted to follow suit.
“I didn’t realize my old house was so valuable until I started aging tea,” he said, laughing. “Now I have to take good care of it. You see, patience is important, not only in making good tea, but also in life in general.”
Pan Jieyin has aged 500 packages of tea leaves, each bringing him 30 yuan a year.
Zhou has also encouraged him to grow tea to earn extra money. As a result, Pan Jieyin’s annual income has increased to 30,000 yuan.
Pan Manbao, 36, and his 33-year-old wife, Feng Qiugu, have also found prosperity in tea. Poverty forced them to postpone their wedding until they had saved 20,000 yuan — seven years after registering for marriage. However, in 2019, they earned 12,000 yuan. They then took a further 100 tea packages to mature at home this year.
“It’s much easier to save money now,” Feng Qiugu said. “We don’t need to engage in heavy labor by carrying our produce for a long way on foot.”
Resources in Dachong are abundant for those with a keen eye. With bamboo growing all over the mountains, Zhou and villagers have concocted another way to boost their product’s value — with a pretty, handmade package to sell dark tea in at a higher price. Knitted bamboo baskets now hold the tea leaves, replacing the old gunnysacks.
In 2018, Pan Qinglan, Feng Qiugu, and more than 100 women in Dachong were offered the opportunity to knit baskets, each netting 9 yuan.
“When I was a kid, I saw my grandma and mother knit baskets, and I also knitted some for daily use, like every family here did,” Pan Qinglan said. “But nobody ever thought this craft could also make money.”
While Pan Qinglan regrets that she is not very skillful, a workshop offers training programs for basket-making, particularly those for tea fermentation. The best craftswomen can fashion over 20 baskets daily.
“I can only make 10, but it’s OK,” Pan Qinglan said. “It doesn’t interfere with my farm work. I can do it whenever I have time, like people in cities sometimes also knit sweaters.”
She earned over 6,000 yuan in 2018 from basket-making. Dachong villagers can collectively earn around 600,000 yuan annually from the baskets.
Nowadays, a greater number of vehicles arriving in the village also order local produce. Pan Qinglan and Feng Qiubao’s ginger has become popular, and they also operate a fishpond. Pan Manbao has started keeping bees, from which he earned 6,000 yuan last year.
“My wife makes extra money by knitting,” Pan Manbao said. “I cannot lag behind. I have to start my own business.”
Recent statistics show that average income per capita in Dachong reached 9,500 yuan in 2019, tripling in five years. But Zhao, the Party chief, plans to introduce new businesses to make villagers richer.
“We see tourists drive to the village every day, from nearby cities and from (nearby) Guangdong province,” he said. “Tourism can be the next booming industry if we keep improving the infrastructure.”
Wooden boardwalks and an observation deck have recently been built to act as tourist tracks for future visitors. Some villagers, like Feng Qiubao, plan to turn their houses into homestay inns.
He has other plans. The couple has never traveled outside Guangxi. Their daughter, graduating from college, abandoned her job as a civil servant with the local government and chose to work in Guangdong, saying “the world is big, and I’d like to see it”.
An open-minded Feng Qiubao respects his daughter’s decision, knowing the necessity of catching up with the fast-changing world, even though they live deep in the mountains. Broadband internet connectivity will be brought to the village later this year.
“When we got married and first heard people talk about ‘tourism’ some years ago, I didn’t even know what the word meant,” he said. “But life is getting better now. Seeing tourists come here, we’d like to be tourists to travel to faraway places as well. If we can buy a car, that will be even better.”
Contact the writers at wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn