The only young man stayed and started his business in a poor village
China's poverty alleviation policy is a great feat that has attracted the attention of the world. The policy has made great changes happen in the formerly impoverished rural areas, and has improved a lot of infrastructures, such as housing, road, water, electricity and network. With the vigorous advancement of rural revitalization, the integration of the internet and the internet of things, as well as the implementation of industries in the rural areas is feasible, some young people who once tried to get out of the mountains now choose to return to their hometowns to root their businesses and find a new way to realize self-worth in hometown.
Aerial photo taken on July 19, 2020 shows the well-constructed road in Erlang Township, Cheng County, Longnan City, northwest China's Gansu Province. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
In Yanhe Village, there are 110 households and 5 villager groups of 456 people living on several mountain ridges stretching over 6 kilometers in the surrounding area. Nearly 100 young and middle-aged workers in the village chose to leave. Mr. Yang Jianqiang, a 34-year-old, is the only young man willing to stay and started a business in his less-developed hometown.
Yanhe Village is located in the north of Nigong Mountain, with an altitude of nearly 2,000 meters above sea level. The mountains are high and the land is steep. Villagers here can only depend on the local condition for food. Since there is only one dirt road in the village, due to the poor traffic condition, whenever it rains or snows, people would be stuck in the village for the following few days. If anyone fell ill, they could only be carried out by others.
A folk song popular in the local area sings, "Erlang Nigong Mountain, three feet three away from the sky. Monkeys dare not climb, nor birds dare fly." Yanhe Village was once a typical village that was deeply impoverished. Located in front of the high mountains and deep ditch, desolation and poverty follow it like a silhouette, only suffocating.
Aerial photo taken on July 19, 2020 shows the ecological scenery of Yanhe Village. It has now become a famous tourist spot in the county. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
Yang was born in a poor farmer’s family in 1986. He and his friends, who had not been out of the village before the age of 11, spent their carefree childhood catching fish by the river in summer and picking wild fruits in the mountains in autumn... After middle school, he had to carry flour, yam and firewood enough for a week with his back, and climbed the mud mountain for nearly three hours to get to Erlang Township High School to study. During that time, he had to cook and care for himself. The difficulty of learning dragged him greatly. He didn't manage to graduate from high school. At the age of 14, without his family knowing, he got away with his relatives in the nearby village and came to northwest China's Xinjiang to pick cottons for a living.
Later, Yang Jianqiang began to work around. After changing various jobs like raising chickens, driving dump trucks, etc., he failed to make much money in a year, even working overtime and saving money all he could. Meanwhile, there was no one left at home to take care of the elderly and children.
Photo taken on July 19, 2020 shows the beautiful new homes for Yanhe villagers. After the implementation of the relocation project, 27 households in the village now enjoy new homes of 80 m2 each. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
After working hard in the city for many years, Yang has gained a lot of experience. In 2015, he used the 100,000 yuan accumulated over the years to establish a breeding cooperative to breed bumblebees, plant Chinese medicinal materials, and develop seedling industrys of white pine, yew, etc., which helped to drive 14 poor households in the village to achieve poverty alleviation and increase income.
During the arduous early days of starting a new business, Yang devoted all himself and worked really hard. Five years later, his cooperative gradually grew larger, with an annual income of about 150,000 yuan. He is currently transferring 50 acres of land to raise funds for building a mountain vegetable planting and processing base.
Yang, once a poor boy from the village, has now earned a new life. After the relocation, he moved to a new house, got a car and started a family. Now his two children can live and study in town with his wife who operates a flower shop there.
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows the old house of Yang's father Yang Desheng, who spent all his life there, taking care of the 140 boxes of bees and 10 acres of walnut trees. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
"On the road of poverty alleviation, we would never leave behind even one household or individual."
Mountains and rivers still look the same, though endless changes have already taken place in Yanhe Village, like what thousands of other impoverished mountain villages across the country also experienced, rejuvenating to a well-off society.
Like many young people of the new generation who decide to be "left behind" in the village, Yang is seizing the opportunity of "poverty alleviation and rural revitalization" for a brand new future for himself, his family and his village. The younger generations are as diligent and wise. They make better use of technology to let the happiness of the countryside be seen by the world beyond the mountains, leading more people to get prosperous together.
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows that Yang's father was getting the honey their cooperative produced ready for sales in town. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows rice, tea and other daily necessities bought by Yang from the city for his 81-year-old grandmother who chose to continue to live in the village with her son, Yang's father. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows that Yang and his father were checking the honey production of bumblebees. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows that Yang was cleaning up the weeds around the bumblebee trough in the mountains. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows that Yang was arranging the beehives provided by the County Agriculture and Rural Bureau. He planned to expand the scale of bumblebee breeding in the second half of the year. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows that a 58-year-old from an impoverished household in Yanhe Village, received a wage of 2,400 yuan for a part-time job from the cooperative in the third quarter. Yang Jianqiang’s cooperative is currently helping 14 impoverished households in the village to increase their income by means of industry shareholding, land transfer, beekeeping, and other types of employment. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows that Yang was rotating 50 acres of land. In October, he planed to build 5 acres of greenhouse and 45 acres of open-air toon and oolongtou planting base. (Photo by Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020 shows that Yang was discussing the construction situation of the vegetable planting and cultivating base with the local government. (Zhang Pingliang/Guangming Picture)
[ Editor: WXY ]
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