Why Can This Village Retain Young People——Development Survey of Shanjiaji Village, Xinglong Town, Xiji County, Ningxia
At the western foot of Liupan Mountain, the sky is high and the clouds are pale.
When I drove to Shanjiaji Village in Xinglong Town, Xiji County, Guyuan City, Ningxia, I saw many shops on both sides of the provincial highway passing through the village.
There are forty to fifty restaurants, two hotels and many shops on the street less than two kilometers long.
Such a scale and level of excitement are comparable to the seat of some township governments, which is rare in Ningxia.
What made this prosperous country?
There are many opportunities for "Northwest Famous Collections"
“Shanjiaji includes Shannan Village and Shanbei Village. There are more than 4,000 people. They are named after the majority of Shan surnames. A commercial bazaar was formed here in the early Qing Dynasty. Trading of fur, agricultural products, etc. Due to the good quality of cattle and sheep and the high integrity of the villagers, the scope of the transaction involves Shaan-Gan-Ning and Xinjiang, Hebei, Shandong and other places." Shan Yun, party branch secretary of Shannan Village, introduced to reporters.
Around the market, Shanjiaji has gradually formed a variety of businesses such as raising cattle, collecting cattle, selling cattle, accommodation, catering, and retail.
Among them, middle-aged and elderly men mainly raise cattle, while women are mainly in the service industry. Young men are called "cowboys" and are mainly responsible for finding and driving cattle for the big traffickers in the village. The local dialect is called grilling cattle.
On a single day in the lunar calendar, the "cowboys" go to the bazaar to pick up cows.
At 4 o'clock in the morning, the single-house live animal trading market opened.
Trucks came from all directions pulling live cattle into the field one after another, and the sound of the bulls rang into one. The "cowboys" helped to drive and select the cattle after busying themselves: negotiate the price with the owner of the bull that you fancy.
After the negotiation, the cattle will be marked, and finally the cattle will be rushed to the employer’s cattle farm for delivery.
"The eyesight of the beef must be accurate." The 29-year-old Bai Wanfu told reporters that on the same day, he helped a large householder Ma Lianjie to pick more than a dozen cows, earning an intermediary fee of 100 yuan per cow and an income of more than 1,000 yuan.
He has been in this business for more than 10 years since he was 18 years old, and his annual income is more than 100,000 yuan, which is a high income in rural areas of Ningxia.
There is also an upgraded version of Steak, that is, "Niu Yazi" buys beef cattle on the market and resells them to other merchants to make the difference.
Limited by their strength and risk aversion, they often only buy three to five cows and sell them immediately as long as one cow can earn one or two hundred yuan.
If you can’t sell it that day, drive the cattle back home to raise them and wait for the next market to sell them.
In Shanjiaji, a beef cow may be knocked down several times, and repeated transactions greatly increase the chances of making money.
"There are plenty of opportunities, work is not tiring, and the income is even higher than that of young people in the city!" Shan Yun said.
Because of the market, Shanjiaji people have a good life.
But for young people, the outside world is still tempting.
In the 1990s, many young people in Shanjiaji went out to work.
However, in the past 10 years, most of the young people who have gone out have returned one after another because of the rapid expansion of the development space in the village.
"Poverty alleviation industry" has a lot of space
After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the level of targeted poverty alleviation was unprecedented.
Some impoverished counties in the northwest have shifted the focus of poverty alleviation industries from planting to breeding based on the actual conditions of drought and water shortage.
Due to the good economic benefits and market prospects of raising beef cattle, with the vigorous promotion of local governments and the strong support of financial institutions, beef cattle breeding has shifted from sporadic breeding to large-scale breeding, and turned to excellent beef cattle breeds, and the beef cattle industry has entered the fast lane.
As a result, the development space of Shanjiaji has been multiplied, and young people who have gone out to venture out have begun to return.
In 2012, Shan Zhihu, a veteran "Niu Yazi" who had been in transportation for 8 years, returned to the village and resumed his old career.
"Actually, it was okay to run transportation back then. I could earn more than 100,000 yuan a year. The reason why I came back was to take the opportunity to do a lot!" Shan Zhihu, 38 this year, told reporters.
In 2013, Shanjiaji built a new live animal trading market in response to the new situation, which expanded from the past 5 acres to 75 acres, and the volume of beef cattle traded in each episode surged to several hundred heads.
The number of merchants who came to buy cattle increased sharply, and they were mainly merchants from Guangdong and Yunnan with strong purchasing power.
"Southern merchants basically buy as much as they have." Shan Zhihu said.
Seeing that beef cattle production and sales are booming, Shan Zhihu made a decisive move, raised more than 40 beef cattle with a loan, and changed his home into a guest house for merchants to live in, run by his wife.
After the fight against poverty began in 2016, the scale of beef cattle industry in Ningxia and surrounding provinces has expanded rapidly. The daily trading volume of single-family-owned beef cattle has increased to more than 1,000, and the peak season has reached more than 1,500, and merchants have also surged.
As a result, Shan Zhihu demolished his homestay in 2019 and built a four-story hotel with an annual income of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan, completing the turn from a "niuyazi" to the boss.
Thanks to the growth of the poverty alleviation industry, in recent years, the transaction volume of single-family beef cattle has reached more than 200,000 heads and the annual transaction volume is more than 400 million yuan.
At the house of Shan Jianjun, 22, the reporter saw three modern cowsheds in the yard full of beef cattle.
At the market that day, he bought 75 cows, of which 57 were purchased by foreign customers, and the rest were fed for a period of time and sold.
On that day, he earned more than 10,000 yuan in agency fees.
Like the older generation of "cowboys", he started driving cattle at the age of fourteen or five. After saving some money, he began to pick up cattle.
The difference is that he searches for merchants through the Internet, and establishes a stable cooperative relationship with a number of southern merchants, becoming his broker.
Last year, he earned 450,000 yuan.
The old "Niu Yazi" successfully returned, and the new generation of "Niu Yazi" grew rapidly, and the single family was integrated into a well-known rich village.
In 2020, the per capita net income of Shanjiaji exceeded 18,000 yuan, ranking first in Xiji County.
"Simple Country" has a long way to go
After being rich, buying a house in the city is now the choice of many rural youths in the northwest. One is that most of them like city life, and the other is to go to school for their children.
However, this phenomenon is not prominent in Shanjiaji, and only about one-third of the people have bought a house in the city.
Shan Xuzhong, 44, is a big cattle dealer. Both children are in high school in the county seat, but they have never bought a house in the county seat.
In this regard, Shan Xuzhong said bluntly: "I think it is mainly a problem of concepts. Most people in our village attach importance to education, but do not over-pursue buying a house in the city for their children to go to school."
Walk into the home of Shan Wenxing, a 43-year-old cattle dealer, and the spacious yard has a beautiful house on one side and a clean cowshed on the other.
There are 7 people in his family, including 3 school children and elderly parents, who also did not buy a house in the city.
"Old people are not used to living in the city and are unwilling to enter the city. In our village, it is impossible for young people to ignore the elderly, so not many people buy houses in the city." Shan Wenxing said.
"There is also the convenience and comfort of life in the village, which is also one of the factors that villagers buy less houses in the city." Mi Zhengqing, party branch secretary of Shanbei Village, concluded.
The phenomenon of buying a house reflects the characteristics of young people in Shanjiaji that are pragmatic and rational, and value family affection.
Apart from the retention of people by the industry, this is undoubtedly an important reason why the village can retain young people.
The most important thing to keep people is to pay attention. If you keep young people, you keep the labor force and your vitality.
The reporter saw that in Shanjiaji, the young are dependent and the elderly are supported. In addition, the ecological environment is getting better and better in recent years, and the beautiful picture of rural revitalization is slowly unfolding to the villagers.
In 2020, Ningxia clearly regards the beef cattle industry as one of the nine key industries for high-quality development, and has issued a strong policy, which is a major benefit to Shanjiaji.
Not only that, the college students who passed the exams also began to return to the village to develop.
Last year, after graduating from university, 22-year-old Ma Xu took the initiative to return to Shanjiaji to develop the beef cattle industry.
The college students returned to the village and injected new strength into the development of Shanjiaji. A bright future for such a village can be expected.
(Economic Daily reporter Tuo Zhaobing)