Love Village Club plans and understands management
The operator makes a big difference in Lin'an Mountain Village (entering rural China)
Liu Shan
Tianmu Yuexiang, Jingshan Sunny Slope, Red Leaf Guide, Longmen Secret Realm...these villages scattered on the Tianmu land are like pearls strung together. They have a common name "Tianmu Village", which is Zhejiang Province Zhejiang's first "village scenic spot" public brand created in Lin'an District, Hangzhou City. Its birth is inseparable from a team called "rural operators".
In May 2017, the Lin'an District Tourism Bureau proposed the concept of "rural market-oriented operation" and recruited rural operators from across the country, attracting a group of people who love the countryside, know planning, and know how to operate, and flocked to Lin'an to actively develop rural tourism. Revitalize the countryside. The addition of this new force has injected fresh vitality and endogenous power into Lin'an Mountain Village.
"Ancestral hall becomes a school", village resources become products
Walking into Yangxi Village, Qingliangfeng Town, Lin'an District, a unique small stone building comes into view. This is the sesame candy experience hall of Chen Jinkui, an old craftsman in the village. The intoxicating aroma of sesame and candy wafts from inside. The two-story small building is equipped with tea tasting area, product display area, handicraft experience area, sesame candy handicraft area and other spaces. The decoration is simple and elegant, and it is particularly warm. In the handicraft room, Chen Chunjiao, the fourth-generation inheritor of the art of making masu candies, is immersed in boiling the raw material of masu candies: maltose. "Wait for me a moment. You need to keep an eye on the whole process while cooking. Don't be sloppy, otherwise you will burn." While she was busy, she enthusiastically asked us to sit down.
Everything in front of me is emotional. Who would have thought that the original masu candy shop was just a small workshop at home, with a small space and dim lighting. The masu candies made daily are only supplied to a few retail stores in the town.
After Lin'an recruited rural operators from across the country, Chen Weihong, deputy director of the Lin'an District Tourism Bureau, thought that Zhang Xiaoyun would be a good candidate. At that time, Zhang Xiaoyun was running a travel agency and was always looking for a new breakthrough. So, with Chen Weihong's encouragement, Zhang Xiaoyun led the team to visit three villages in Lin'an. Yangxi Village is one of them during this trip. With more than 10 years of experience in the tourism industry, Zhang Xiaoyun fell in love with this small village at a glance. After further exchanges, Zhang Xiaoyun’s idea changed from the initial creation of a single project to the operation of the entire village under Chen Weihong’s suggestion.
Yangxi Village is a famous cultural village in western Zhejiang, and its "culture of loyalty and filial piety" is its background. The most distinctive thing is the Xiaozi Temple located in the middle of the village. This is an ancestral hall with a history of thousands of years. In the early days of his stay in the village, Chen Weihong convened relevant tourism experts and held planning discussions with the Yangxi Village Committee and Zhang Xiaoyun's team. He conducted planning for the whole village around the theme of the village's scenic spots and the characteristic resource Filial Son Temple, and decided to build a "Zhongxiao Culture" with the theme of "Zhongxiao Ancient Village" "Village Scenic Area", and adopts the operation method of "turning ancestral halls into schools" to turn village resources into products. After the launch of the "Zhongxiao Academy" study products, it has gradually attracted attention and recognition from all walks of life, attracting more than 8,000 students every year to experience the culture of Zhongxiao.
The whole village must be run so that the villagers can also benefit from it
"But after careful calculation, apart from the site fee, there is not much real benefit to the village." According to Lin'an's rural operation model, operators cannot only operate a single project to make a profit, but must operate the entire village so that villagers can also Can get benefits. After investigating the needs of tourists and villagers, Zhang Xiaoyun's team came up with a new operation plan. Relying on the "Zhongxiao School", it cooperated with professional research institutions to upgrade the "Zhongxiao Culture" course, and planned to launch sesame candy making and straw shoe weaving. , a letter home, farming sports games and other activities. At the same time, experience projects such as small trains, earth stoves, and outdoor expansion have been added. In addition, we also designed a tour route that connects with surrounding scenic spots, extending the original half-day trip to one or two days.
Since the village had an experience program, the number of visitors has increased significantly. Xiao Li, who is unable to go out to find a job due to his disability, has also set up a stall and started a business. He said that during the peak tourist season of spring and autumn, the daily turnover can reach 7,000 yuan. The average monthly income of the village canteen has also increased from the initial 4,000 yuan to more than 10,000 yuan.
Unable to bear to see her ancestors' craftsmanship unsuccessful, Chen Chunjiao resigned from her stable job in the city and returned to her hometown to inherit the craftsmanship of her father, Chen Jinkui. She launched a handmade sesame candy experience project, conducted on-site teaching, and, with the assistance of operators, refined the sesame candy products. Packaging, publicity, and successfully declared the masu candy making skills as Lin'an District-level intangible cultural heritage. With the operator's empowerment, the former small workshop has transformed into a Ma Su Candy leisure tea bar, integrating visiting, production, experience and sales. With the opening of e-commerce sales channels, Chen Chunjiao's sesame candy has become more and more famous, and customers from abroad come to her to buy it. In 2023, Chen Chunjiao's son and daughter-in-law also returned to their hometown from the city to inherit their ancestral business. Looking back on the development process in the past few years, Chen Chunjiao is deeply touched: "Since the operator entered the village for operation, the village has become more alive. After the operator's packaging and promotion, my sesame candy has become more popular, and tourists who come to Yangxi Village always have it. Take several copies home.”
"From the initial creation of the 'ancestral hall into a school' to the operation of the entire village, the value of cultural resources has been truly explored and the advantages of cultural resources have been transformed into cultural industry advantages. In the first half of 2023 alone, Yangxi Zhongxiao School will receive primary and secondary school students 2 With more than 10,000 people, the village’s collective economic benefit has been more than 260,000 yuan." said Chen Jianzheng, secretary of the Party branch of Yangxi Village.
Open the door for dialogue between the "hollow village" and the outside world
An article describes the secret place of Longmen like this, "From the moment you drive on the winding mountain road, everything you see is green. They are seas of bamboo, terraced fields and orchards. Looking down the mountain, there are gurgling streams, and 'at the foot of the mountain, The meandering of the river, the feeling of a bay of beautiful scenery and a panoramic valley."
Longmen Secret Land is a village scenic spot composed of three administrative villages: Shimen, Longshang and Dashan. The highest point is 1170 meters above sea level. Walking on the clean gravel road in the village, you can see the white-walled and black-tiled houses in front of you. The aroma of "Yau Deng Kueh" is filling your nostrils. The faces of the tourists walking by are full of satisfaction. Grandpas and grandmas in the village alleys greet you warmly. There are sounds from the New Fourth Army Memorial Hall. Touching explanation voice...
Before 2017, Longmen Secret Realm was still a "hollow village". Just like its name, it was secretive and little-known. The Lion Rock in the territory has unique natural advantages and geographical features, which has given birth to a rock climbing project with unique local cultural characteristics. Its launch has opened the door to dialogue between the Longmen Secret Land and the outside world.
"Someone once said that Gaohong Town 'is a place without B&Bs or scenic spots'. I was born and raised in Gaohong Town. My grandmother's home is in Dashan Village, where there are bamboo seas, terraced fields, and orchards. I passed Shimen Village every day when I was a child. It is a famous ancient village, how can we say that Gaohong Town has no attractions?" said Lou Min, the operator of Longmen Secret Realm.
After Lin'an held an event to attract rural operators nationwide, Lou Min decided to operate Longmen Secret Realm. In order to preserve the original ecological background and cultural characteristics of the countryside, she and her team used the "operation-first" planning thinking to plan and design the entire village industry for Longmen Secret Realm.
Not long after entering the village, Lou Min signed a cooperation agreement with the village to jointly form an operating company. The agreement not only included the creation of a tourism industry in Longmen Secret Land, but also included how to increase the income of villagers and the village collective. The initial operation was not smooth. Although Longmen Secret Land has rich mountain resources and unique rural life, it lacks talents and funds, and the villagers are aging seriously and have low cognitive levels. Although the rock climbing project of Lion Rock has opened up the market for Longmen Secret Land, how to turn "beautiful ecology" into "beautiful economy" and turn "hurried passers-by" into "long-term guests"?
Lou Min recalled that at that time, there were only a dozen or so farmhouses in Longmen Secret Realm, with no distinctive features and weak business. Only by fully revitalizing the landscape resources and writing articles from "selling scenery" to "selling life" can a complete industrial chain be formed. After fully investigating the three villages of Shimen, Longshang and Dashan, Lou Min’s team decided on a secret tour with the themes of exploring ancient times, having fun, recuperating and studying, and built a mid-to-high-end B&B.
“I never dreamed that I could make money from homemade specialties.”
In the second year of operation, the original "hollow village" gained "face". Lou Min's team explored local culture, folk customs, special food and other resources, and built a number of small and beautiful "Internet celebrity check-in points" in the villages to display products and carry out interactive experiences in the "front shop and back workshop" model. The originally lonely Shimen Old Street has gradually returned to its former glory due to the return and opening of shops one after another. More and more tourists come to Longmen Secret Land to experience native life. Langshangxing B&B has become an "Internet celebrity B&B" in Longmen Secret Realm, and subsequently initiated the establishment of a small cluster of Longmen Secret B&Bs. During holidays, members of the small B&B cluster will communicate and work in the WeChat group, share the occupancy status of the B&B rooms in a timely manner, and divert the guests to other B&Bs with available rooms when their own B&B is full. Some farmhouses that initially had a wait-and-see attitude have also started to "micro-renovate and improve".
Today, after resource integration and reshaping, there are scenic spots such as Longtan Sports Expansion Base, Glacier Relics Tianshi Beach, Health and Wellness Research Base Jinzhuwu, Mountain Terraces Linjiatang, Star City Caoshan Gang, and middle and high-end boutique B&Bs, forest cabins, etc. High-end B&B hotels, folk culture experience hall, New Fourth Army Memorial Hall, Red Culture Experience Hall, Nostalgia Memory Hall, Rural Revitalization Hall, Rock Climbing Museum and other venues, folk snack experience rooms, local specialty supermarkets, craft beer bars, terraced trains, music Barbecue, Longtan Fantasy Park, RC Longteng Race Track and other tourist supporting facilities have joined forces to give Longmen Secret Land the "unpopular" label. A series of festivals held every year include the East China Water Climbing Elite Challenge, the Chrysanthemum Culture Festival, the Longmen Secret Sauce Festival, the Farmers Harvest Festival, the Craft Beer Festival, the Longmen Customs Festival, the Water Play Festival, and the Star City Camping Conference. , integrating warmth into the local culture, allowing the "Longmen Secret Realm" brand to be widely disseminated.
“After the first Longmen Secret Sauce Festival, Aunt Zhang from the village excitedly told me with the bonus that she never thought that she could make money from homemade specialties.” Lou Min introduced, “In 2023, we will receive a total of 200 tourists. More than 10,000 people visited, the revenue was more than 90 million yuan, directly providing employment for more than 300 villagers, increasing the village collective operating income by more than 4 million yuan, increasing the villagers' income by more than 70 million yuan, attracting 68 young people and new rural talents to return to their hometowns to start businesses, and introducing 150 million yuan of social capital." (People's Daily Overseas Edition)