Jinan, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Exploring the revitalization of the countryside at the foot of the Great Wall of Qi.
Xinhua News Agency reporter Shao Luwen.
In a field in Xiaoli Street, Changqing District, Jinan, Shandong, there is a mound of soil more than 600 meters long, nearly 30 meters wide and nearly 4 meters high, which is the western starting point of the Great Wall of Qi.
Not long along the west starting point of the Great Wall of Qi, you can come to Hulinpo Village, Xiaoli Street. When you first enter the village, you will be amazed. The village is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the blue sky is like a wash when you look up, the road is clean and tidy when you look down, and there are large and small flower ponds everywhere in the village.
In recent years, Jinan City, Shandong Province has effectively protected the ruins of the Great Wall of Qi by strengthening preventive and rescue protection, strengthening daily maintenance and local rescue and reinforcement, and the appearance of many villages along the Great Wall of Qi has also changed.
In the past, the ground in the village was not completely hardened, potholes were the norm, and it was even more difficult to walk an inch after rain. Shi Shaohua, secretary of the party branch of Hulinpo Village, said that in the past two years, the village has raised funds to improve the village environment, renovated the road surface, filled in the ditches, installed more than 40 solar street lights, and built a small square in the center of the village.
The environment has improved, and foreign industries have also begun to enter Hulinpo Village. The reporter saw in the packaging bag processing factory in the village that the workers were busy with production. Li Hongshan, a villager from Hulinpo Village, who works here on weekdays, told reporters that the nine workers in the factory are all women in the village, and they can be employed at their doorstep, with a monthly income of more than 3,000 yuan, and everyone is very satisfied.
At the packaging bag processing factory in Hulinpo Village, workers are producing. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Shao Luwen.
Shi Shaohua told reporters that the place where the processing plant is located used to be a big pit, and the village will fill it up and harden it, and after winning the policy of the higher level to build the plant, there will soon be enterprises willing to lease. The annual rent of 65,000 yuan for the factory is all owned by the village collective.
Not far from Hulinpo Village, Beihuangya Village has a long history and is the sixth batch of villages to be included in the list of traditional Chinese villages. In the past two years, we have also taken the opportunity of environmental improvement to develop the cultural tourism industry. Since last year, Beihuangya Village has carried out planning and design of old residential buildings, attracted investment, and turned the vacant old courtyard into a unique country house.
Wang Zhenming, secretary of the party branch of Beihuangya Village, said that there are more than 400 acres of picking gardens in the village, mainly planting cherries, peaches, kiwifruit, apples, etc., and many people come to pick every year, but it is difficult to retain tourists. With the completion of the renovation of more than a dozen sets of old houses with different characteristics, the village can already provide catering and accommodation services, and has taken a big step towards the integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism industries.
A renovated courtyard in North Huangya Village. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Shao Luwen.
Continue along the winding Great Wall of Qi to Wanglao Village in Laiwu District, a small mountain village that was unknown in the past, and now has become a well-known "Internet celebrity village" nearby.
The village is located in a mountainous area, and in the past, transportation was inconvenient and information was blocked, and the villagers' individual income and village collective income were relatively low. Zhang Kai, secretary of the party branch of Wanglao Village, said that backed by the beautiful natural scenery and profound cultural heritage along the Great Wall of Qi, Wanglao Village has found a new way of development in recent years. In 2019, the village signed a village-enterprise cooperation agreement with Shanxiang Group, adopting the model of "party branch + enterprise + farmer" to integrate the resources of Wanglao Village, such as forests, ponds, springs, pastorals, and villages, and create tourism facilities such as homestays, children's playgrounds, camping bases, and parent-child nature education camps.
A camping base built in Wanglao Village. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee).
Zhang Kai told reporters that after several years of development, Wanglao Village has received more than 110,000 tourists throughout the year, camping bases and homestays maintain a 100% occupancy rate on holidays and weekends, and tourism has simultaneously driven the development of catering, entertainment, accommodation, shopping and other industries in the village, driving the employment of more than 50 people, and the collective income of the village has exceeded 400,000 yuan.
Today, the 2,600-year-old Great Wall of Qi has passed through historical time and space, still stretching for thousands of miles, and the appearance and industrial form of ancient villages along the route have undergone earth-shaking changes, and the ancient Great Wall has strung up a vibrant rural revitalization chain. Wang Degang, dean of the Tourism Industry Research Institute of Shandong University, said.