News Investigation丨Ten Years in China: Changes in Grange
Tianzhuang Village is affiliated to Yanchi Town, Mentougou District, Beijing. The village has a total registered population of 446 households with 841 persons and a permanent population of 233 households with 408 persons.
The 219 provincial highway passes through Chuan Village, connecting the life of the mountain people with the bustling city 70 kilometers away. The stone-paved hillside path leads to the new farm houses scattered in different heights.
The few remaining stone houses are uninhabited, inadvertently restoring the appearance of the village ten years ago.
At that time, the farm was still a mudslide risk village with a cluttered village, inconvenient transportation, and an annual per capita income of less than 10,000 yuan.
Walk into this "Beautiful Leisure Village in China" and explore the changes of the village in the past ten years.
Debris flow dangerous village renovation
Tianzhuang Village is surrounded by mountains. In the past, it was the custom of the villagers to build houses with stones in the mountains. Until more than ten years ago, most of the villagers here still lived in stone houses.
However, in mountainous areas, landslides caused by mudslides are extremely prone to occur during the rainy season.
In 2005, government departments allocated funds to build a flood drainage canal in the village.
The construction of the flood drainage canal has alleviated the devastating disaster caused by the mud-rock flow in the rainy season to the village to a certain extent, but the stone house, which is completely incapable of resisting geological disasters, is still a major hidden danger endangering the safety of life and property in Tianzhuang Village.
Wang Yingyong's home is on the northernmost side of the village. In the late 1980s, he spent 700 yuan to build three stone houses.
Wang Yingyong is 50 years old this year. In 2014, when he finally saved enough money to rebuild the house, he suddenly learned a piece of news.
Wang Yingyong:
Reconstruction of a village at risk of debris flow, because we also belong to a debris flow village.
Since 2004, the relocation project for farmers in mountainous areas has been fully implemented, and relocation, consolidation and relocation, planned reconstruction and scattered relocation are the more common types of relocation.
In 2012, with the launch of a new round of relocation projects, Tianzhuang Village ushered in the biggest development opportunity in its history - it was included in the list of planned reconstruction, and the whole village was reconstructed on the spot.
The villagers did not expect that the mudslides that once troubled everyone would become an opportunity to improve their lives.
According to the policy at the time, the renovation was done on a voluntary basis. Each household could enjoy a subsidy of 40,000 yuan for earthquake resistance and energy saving. In addition, each registered villager could also enjoy a subsidy of 18,000 yuan for the relocation of the dangerous village. requirements.
Soon, the news spread in the village.
The villagers of Tianzhuang Village, who had never enjoyed such treatment, could not even believe the authenticity of the news.
The built house is owned by the villagers, and there are no additional conditions. Through the propaganda, the villagers finally believe that this is true.
But when it comes to implementation, how should the money be spent and how should the house be built?
Cui Chunhong:
There are two methods. (One is) the village is responsible for controlling, and the whole is done in one specification. The second method is to give money to each household.
At that time, many people in the village hoped that the money would go directly to themselves, but some people thought that if the money was distributed to the villagers to build themselves, the quality of the houses might not be guaranteed.
There are different opinions in Tianzhuang Village on how to use the subsidy for building a house.
In the end, after a vote, the relocation and reconstruction project of Tianzhuang Village adopted the method of pooling funds and unified construction in the village.
According to the village's plan, one household and one person can turn over a 50-square-meter house for free, two-person 60-square-meter, three-person 70-square-meter, and so on.
The extra part is subsidized by the villagers according to the average price of 1,500 yuan per square meter.
Through bidding, Yanchi Town invited a professional company for the village to carry out unified architectural design and planning.
But the first time they saw the design, the villagers saw the problem.
The winter climate in the mountains is cold, and designers who have lived in cities for a long time do not have much experience with this.
Therefore, the villagers put forward suggestions to the design company, hoping to build the house in the old way handed down from the ancestors.
At the same time, some landscape buildings in the village also use the original stone walls.
Wang Yingyong and more than 30 other villagers became members of the construction team.
In addition, the village also hired a professional supervision company, and established a supervision team elected by the villagers to be responsible for the management and use of funds and the supervision of project quality.
The villagers of Tianzhuang Village began to go out to work in the 1980s and 1990s, and many of them once lived in the city.
They had long hoped to be able to use independent and sanitary toilets and kitchens like those in the city, but even if they had money to build new houses, the backward infrastructure in the village used to be an obstacle between ideals and reality.
This whole village renovation plan funded by the government finally made it possible for everyone to realize this wish.
Develop tourism in Tianzhuang Village
With new houses and new infrastructure, it does not mean that there will be a beautiful village. In that year, Tianzhuang Village was still a low-income village. Among the more than 800 registered residents, 277 people had an average annual income of less than 11,200 yuan.
In 2018, more than 2,000 mu of wasteland in Tianzhuang Village was included in the "One Million Mu afforestation" project. Subsequently, a collective forest farm was established in Yanchi Town, and nearly 20 villagers in the village became forest farm workers.
Since the 1980s, working in nearby coal mines and township enterprises has been the way of life for most young people in the village.
But since 2005, this road has not worked out either.
That year, Mentougou was planned by Beijing as an ecological conservation area. For environmental protection reasons, 270 township coal mines in the district were closed down, and township enterprises that were once prosperous also closed down one after another.
The villagers lost their source of income and had to go to work farther away, and the collective income of the village was only some toon trees.
Cui Chunhong:
This toon (village collective) can earn more than 100,000 yuan. That's it, it depends on the government to give some public welfare funds. The state must not give rural subsidies like this for a long time. To truly make the people rich, there must be blood in the village. function, only if there is operating income.
In this remote village with neither resources nor funds, Tianzhuang Village has set its sights on the eco-tourism industry in combination with the positioning of Mentougou District's ecological conservation area.
To this end, the village cadres climbed almost every mountain in the village.
The natural scenery of green hills surrounded by green waters is certainly refreshing, but developing the tourism industry in a mountainous area with only natural scenery is easier said than done.
When Cui Chunhong was worried about the future of the village, in 2018, in order to comprehensively promote the rural revitalization, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for the Improvement of Rural Human Settlements". The Special Action Plan for Promoting the Construction of Beautiful Rural Areas has been released one after another. In addition to the governance of human settlements and the construction of infrastructure, accelerating the development of rural industries is also the focus of this action plan.
In 2018, with the help of the district government and the town government, Tianzhuang Village expanded the Memorial Hall of the First Party Branch and built the Memorial Hall of Martyr Cui Xianfang next to it.
At that time, there were no restaurants or places to stay in the village, and neither village officials nor villagers had any experience in tourism.
After consultation with the party committee and government of Yanchi Town, the village decided to convert the old village site that was abandoned due to the merger into a homestay and cooperate with a professional homestay operating company.
An Xue is the person in charge of the homestay operation company. After visiting Tianzhuang Village, she felt that it was more suitable for developing homestay projects, but the cooperation method proposed by the village was somewhat different from what they originally expected.
An Xue:
We finally reached a cooperation method, that is, we pay a certain amount of rent every year, and 30% of the profits are also given to the village.
In the beginning we may want to give a rent.
Because for enterprises, it is generally enough to pay rent.
Since 2018, each villager in Tianzhuang Village has received a dividend of 500 yuan at the end of the year, but the dividend alone is not enough to meet everyone's basic living needs, especially those villagers who lack the ability to work due to age or physical reasons, the village committee There must be a way to increase their income.
In 2018, thanks to the project and financial support of the Beautiful Countryside Construction Special Action Plan, Tianzhuang Village built 6 ecological toilets, planted roses and willows in the green belt of more than 2,000 square meters, and there is one every 10 meters on the street. Energy-saving street lamps.
These infrastructures require dedicated personnel for long-term management.
Tianzhuang Village now has nearly 30 management positions, and local villagers are also hired for homestays and memorial halls. In addition, the daily repairs and maintenance of some public facilities will also be paid to villagers at a rate of 120 to 150 yuan per day.
In 2020, all 277 low-income farmers in Tianzhuang Village will be relieved, and the per capita annual income of the whole village will reach 17,000 yuan.
In Cui Chunhong's view, these positions can not only improve their lives, but also allow everyone to participate in the construction of the village.
Cui Chunhong, whose daughter works in the city, told us that many elderly people in the village are reluctant to leave the village where they have lived all their lives.
They hope that their children will get out of the mountains and achieve better development, but deep down they still look forward to the day when they can be with their children all the time.
Cui Chunhong is full of expectations for the prospect of tourism in Tianzhuang Village. In his vision, the village must become a hometown that the villagers are proud of in the future, a hometown that can attract young people to return to their hometowns to start businesses and work.
But how to keep developing without detours is the most realistic test at the moment.
Tourism Development in Tianzhuang Village
Guo Peng has been working in Desheng Street, Xicheng District, the core location of Beijing. In the winter of 2021, he came to Tianzhuang Village for the first time.
Guo Peng:
The first impression is that this village is very popular. The second word is that it is big. You may not be able to walk for a few days, and you may not be able to turn around.
Then I feel weak, seeing that every villager and ordinary people actually have some money in their pockets, but they have not reached the state of drums.
Tianzhuang Village was originally composed of two natural villages, Nanshan Village is one of them.
Except for the only one family living here, other villagers have been relocated to the foot of the mountain through village gatherings in the 1980s.
In recent years, the village has been trying to develop ecotourism, and has also tried to negotiate cooperation with some companies, but it has not been realized due to various reasons.
For the village cadres, it is somewhat difficult to plan the tourism development ideas of Tianzhuang Village as a whole.
In 2019, in order to learn more about the experience of Zhejiang's "Thousand Village Demonstration and Ten Thousand Village Renovation" project, Beijing issued the "Beijing "One Hundred Village Demonstration and Thousand Village Renovation" Project Implementation Plan". Jointly launched the "Hundred Teachers Entering Hundred Villages" activity.
Equipped with a team of planners for more than 150 demonstration villages through two-way selection.
There are 15 model villages in Mentougou, including Tianzhuang Village.
In April this year, Tianzhuang Village officially signed a cooperation agreement with the Urban Planning and Design Institute of China Architectural Design Institute Co., Ltd.
Shan Yanming and her team members are here again.
The arrival of the planner made Cui Chunhong see the possibility of breaking the bottleneck of development.
Tian Jiaxing is the executive director of the team. Since the establishment of the "Hundred Teachers Entering Hundred Villages" project, he has visited Tianzhuang Village almost once a month.
Last winter, Tianzhuang Village and the Baishi team made their first attempt.
In the past, the tourist season in the village was limited to March to October every year. Cui Chunhong hopes to create an ice waterfall landscape in Nanshangou with the help of the team to attract winter tourists.
Knowing Cui Chunhong's idea, the team suggested combining the characteristics of red culture, adding cultural landscapes such as themed ice sculptures, and at the same time carrying out small-scale ice and snow sports, replacing ticket revenue with income from catering and entertainment, in order to attract more people to come. Grange, the entire planning and design need 200,000 yuan.
As the head of Tianzhuang Village, Cui Chunhong is very cautious about every investment. He thinks it is too risky to invest 200,000 for the first time.
After several discussions, the Baishi team also expressed their understanding of the demands of the village cadres.
In the end, based on the suggestions of the Baishi team, the village built an ice waterfall attraction with 20,000 yuan, and charged a ticket of 20 yuan per person.
Throughout the winter, tickets, recreational items and catering made the village's collective revenue of 100,000 yuan.
Cui Chunhong said that Tianzhuang Village has spared no effort to develop tourism over the years and tried every means to attract tourists from the city. In fact, the ultimate goal is to enable the villagers to live a life that is not inferior to the city in their hometown, and to bring the village back to life.
Cui Chunhong:
The most ideal Grange is to develop Grange Village into a beautiful village like a paradise, where the old can take care of them, and finally attract the young people in the village to come to the village to work. Once they have jobs, their children will come back, and the schools will also be full. Done.
It is hoped that the urban and rural areas will be integrated, the cities will also develop, and the rural areas will also develop, and they will all get better.