Fuyin Expressway: Lu Chang, people rich in rural beauty
□ Our reporter Xue Zhiwei
In early June, Taining County, Sanming City, located in the northwest of Fujian Province and southeast of the Shanling branch in the middle of the Wuyi Mountains, was full of greenery.
The reporter took a car from Sanming city along the Fuyin Expressway to Taining, and arrived at the Taining toll gate in just over an hour.
“It’s not easy to go out before! It’s not so convenient now.” Deng Lingying, a staff member of the Shancheng Town Tourism Office in Taining County, told reporters that her aunt used to go to Sanming for 7 hours. In 2007, she went to Sanming for school. It takes more than 2 hours, but now it only takes more than 1 hour to go to Sanming.
The G70 Fuyin Expressway is an expressway connecting Fuzhou City, Fujian Province and Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. It has a total length of 2,423 kilometers and passes through 6 provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. The main artery of transportation from southeast to northwest.
In January 2006, the Fujian section of the Fuyin Expressway passing through the three cities of Fuzhou, Sanming and Nanping was opened to traffic, breaking the traffic shackles that have long restricted Taining’s tourism development and shortening the time and space distance between Taining and the central city and developed areas. The radius of the Ningxia tourism market extends from the province to the East China and Central China markets.
According to Chen Yurong, deputy manager of the Sanming Management Branch of Fujian Expressway Group, since the opening of the Fuyin Expressway, it has facilitated people's travel and employment, and promoted rural revitalization and global tourism development along the route.
With the new engine of Fuyin Expressway, Taining has been on the fast lane of tourism development. Scenic spots such as Dajin Lake, Shangqingxi, and Zhaixia Grand Canyon have become popular check-in destinations for tourists.
According to statistics, when the Fuyin Expressway was opened to traffic in 2006, Taining County received 1.393 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 58.3%, and its total tourism revenue was 427 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 101.4%. It officially ranked among the national key tourist areas.
Currently, Jixi Village, Shancheng Township, 19 kilometers away from Taining toll station, is leveraging the expressway to accelerate the development of rural tourism.
Lin Yongsheng, party branch secretary of Jixi Village, told reporters that in the early years, Jixi Village was a typical impoverished village, with poor infrastructure, old houses, and few fields in the villagers' hands. Most of them lived by growing food and tobacco or going out to work.
In 2014, Taining County vigorously developed rural tourism and created the "Five Golden Flowers" tourist village.
Based on the deep water beauty of Jixi Village, Danxia pastoral, cave temples, hometown of Shangshu and other characteristics, Taining County has built a forest health care base of "Gengdu Lijia", introduced and developed Jingxin Academy, Fujian-Taiwan Beautiful Rural Exchange Center, Dendrobium candidum Industrial Park, etc. Promoted the revitalization of the countryside.
"For tourism alone, the income per capita of the villagers has increased by more than 5,000 yuan, and the collective income of the village has grown from less than 50,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan now." Lin Yongsheng said that the rapid development of Jixi Village is inseparable from the opening of high speeds.
After the opening of the high-speed, more tourists came here for sightseeing, which drove the development of the homestay industry in the village and attracted foreign businessmen to invest and start businesses.
Villages have become scenic spots and private houses have become homestays. There are more and more tourists. The beautiful scenery has brought "beautiful economy".
In 2018, Jixi Village withdrew from the ranks of poverty-stricken villages; in July 2019, Jixi Village was selected as one of the first batch of key rural tourism villages in the country with the first comprehensive score in Fujian Province.
"The traffic is better, the conditions in all aspects are better, and everyone is motivated. Before, there was nothing to do. Everyone played cards at home. Now I can't finish all the work and no one can play cards anymore." Villager Liu Xiuhong said that he is currently contracting. After completing the cleaning project and the canteen of the research and study base of the "Growing and Studying Li Family", the income has increased a lot and the living standard has also improved.
"When I first married, the village was very closed. It takes 5 hours to get here by bus from Quanzhou, which is not as convenient as where to go now. Today, the village has vigorously developed rural eco-tourism, and we have followed suit. Li Yumei, the manager of the rice field cafe of "Gengdu Li's" said that thanks to the development of "Gengdu Li's" forest health care, she not only became a cafe manager in front of her house, but also parked at "Gengdu Li's". A shop opened in the market, providing tourists with snacks and souvenirs.
The change of Jixi Village from a poor village to a wealthy village is a microcosm of Taining's efforts to promote the development of cultural, tourism, and health care industry by changing the face of transportation.
Over the years, Taining has gradually walked out of Sanming, Fujian, and the whole country from an unknown mountainous county with tourism as a ladder. The number of tourists has maintained a double-digit growth, reaching 6.713 million in 2019.
□ Our reporter Xue Zhiwei