Chinanews.com, Yichang, February 13th, title: Hubei Bailihuang: Frozen farmers "winter leisure" become "winter busy"
Author Guo Xiaoying and Qin Xianshou
From February 12th to 13th, the last weekend before the start of school for primary and secondary school students in Hubei, tourists from all over the country seized the "tail" of the holiday to enjoy snow, play snow, and ski in Bailihuang, Yichang City, to experience the fun of ice and snow.
"This year (Ice and Snow Tour) is very popular, and I feel that there are more tourists a day than the previous one or two months." Ding Zhaoling, a villager in the second group of Bailihuang Village and the waiter of "Red Leaf Inn", said that the occupancy rate of hotel rooms remained high during the Spring Festival this year. Each waiter cleans more than 20 rooms every day.
Tourists experience ice and snow sports at Bailihuang Ski Resort.
Photo by Qin Xianshou
According to the person in charge of the Bailihuang Scenic Area, the winter Olympics have heated up ice and snow sports. During the Spring Festival this year, the number of skiers in Bailihuang increased by 60% year-on-year, and the number of tourists visiting in a single day has been close to the peak of the snow field.
From the first day to the sixth day of the lunar new year alone, it receives more than 30,000 tourists.
The average altitude of Bailihuang is 1,200 meters, and it is named after the uninhabited area.
The local grassland covers an area of more than 40,000 mu, which is a unique alpine grassland in the Three Gorges area. The movie "Love of Hawthorn Trees" was filmed here, and it is known as "the grasslands of southern China" and "the holy land of pure love".
However, the scarcity of winter tourism products and the unbalanced tourism season have always been the problems faced by Bailihuang.
Children play in the snow play area of Bailihuang Ski Resort.
Photo by Qin Xianshou
"In the winter, when there were no guests in the hotel, the employees would take a long vacation for a month or two, and they could only stay at home." Ding Zhaoling said that after the vacation, because there was no income, the family could only live in a tight way.
In 2016, Bailihuang built an outdoor alpine ski resort to promote the integrated development of ice and snow tourism, ice and snow sports, and ice and snow culture.
With the continuous enrichment and improvement of mass ice and snow entertainment projects and ice and snow products, the number of tourists in Bailihuang is increasing year by year, and the passenger flow is constant throughout the year.
Especially in winter, when ice and snow sports become fashionable, Ding Zhaoling's "winter leisure" has become "winter busy", and her income has also risen.
With the rise of ice and snow sports, many farmers in Bailihuang have become "busy" like Ding Zhaoling.
Tourists enjoy snow in Bailihuang.
Photo by Qin Xianshou
"In our village, the three neighbors next door did not go out to work, but went to work in the scenic spot." Ding Zhaoling said that many surrounding farmers have found jobs in the scenic spot and solved the employment problem.
Some of them became employees of the ski resorts and hotel restaurant clerks, some opened farmhouses and homestays, and some developed breeding, selling cattle and sheep to restaurants in scenic spots, realizing poverty alleviation and prosperity.
In addition to the scenic spots, the fields and hillsides along the way have become the paradise for tourists to enjoy and play with snow.
The corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes baked by farmers have become popular, and farmhouses are even harder to come by.
Fantastic snow scene.
Photo by Qin Xianshou
The Winter Olympics brought fire, ice and snow touring, and Bailihuang also ushered in a new development opportunity.
On February 8, the construction of the Yichang Bailihuang National Tourism Resort Project with an investment of 3.5 billion yuan started. It will build a new hotel, a health center, a hot spring service center, and a supporting parking lot, internal roads, cattle and sheep breeding and processing plants, etc. It is expected to be completed in December 2025.
After the project is completed, it will improve the local rural living environment, promote farmers' income increase, expand domestic demand and promote tourism supply-side reform.
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