Red Tourism Rising

CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Friday, September 6, 2019 | 7 CHINA HISTORY dozen “soldiers” tossed and his “comrades” flocked into fake grenades into the tar Xiao Fumin’s courtyard. They were get area, climbed over a all in Red Army uniforms, with red wall made of tires and zig neckerchiefs and caps emblazoned zagged A nimbly to avoid touching with crimson stars. white ropes meant to simulate a Everyone was sweating after a “rain of gunfire”. morning of simulated attacks on a The scene might look like a mili training field on a nearby mountain. tary drill, but it was a dozen uni The university students, all in their versity students reliving a day of 20s, needed to serve themselves the Red Army. The event was part from a wok wider than their bodies. of a summer boot camp they “We tried red rice and pumpkin attended to learn the history of soup for lunch yesterday,” Li said, the Chinese revolution in its birth explaining they were typical Red place, Jinggangshan, Jiangxi Army dishes. province. “They tasted fine because we had The city offers a number of experi good seasoning. But the Red Army ences to bring alive the difficulties ate them without other ingredients the Red Army faced in the late or condiments. It was the only food 1920s. they had at that time.” The students are attracted by During their stay, the students socalled “Red Education”, and are also tried weaving straw into shoes among more than 10 million tour and trekked a section of the Long ists who travel to Jinggangshan March in the mountains, carrying every year to experience its role in replica rifles and packs of explosives the revolution. and poles weighed down with The massive number of visitors necessities. and limited amount of accommo “We wear sneakers,” Li said. “Just dations is helping lift the largely imagine the Red Army went on the rural population out of poverty. march in straw shoes. It was really The hotels around the main hard making the shoes, and they attractions offer no more than were also very prickly.” 20,000 beds, which means home During the camp, many martyrs’ stays have huge potential to meet descendants gave lectures and told demand, according to Liu Jiguang, of their ancestors’ sacrifices. Party secretary of Dalong town Li said before he came to Jing ship. gangshan, he had only read books “We have red stories backed by the about how important it was to par 5Alevel tourist spot (classification), ticipate in the Chinese revolution. we have green ecology. These are the “Many stories in books are quite best conditions to develop rural abstract and almost seem unreal tourism, so we don’t lack customers,” to me,” he said. he said. “But when I actually heard the In Bashang village, Xiao Fumin, martyrs’ descendants telling those 66, and his wife are among the bene stories in front of me like an old ficiaries of the tourism boom. father, tasted the rough food and The couple, who run a home had the training, I just felt deeply stay, expect the students in their touched by their perseverance and house after the reenactment is faith.” completed. They will be fed a rus tic meal stirfried in a big wok on a Red and breakfast woodfire stove and served in the Since 2011, a large number of vil kitchen. “Students of all grades, lagers with the encouragement of from primary school to university, the local government, have opened from all over the country come to their doors to tourists and offered my house every year,” Xiao said. bed and breakfast. “In 2016, we received more than Villagers like Xiao and Zhu have 800.” shaken off the past and now earn a Before 2016, Xiao’s family strug RED TOURISM comfortable living from their homes. gled financially. Peng Xiaying from Shenshan vil His daughter was diagnosed lage, who opened her homestay in with the kidney disease uremia in 2016 with her husband, said they can 2013 and the high medical expens RISING now earn about 110,000 yuan a year. es dragged the family into debt. Before that, the couple’s income was “She took the medicine for a cou Millions of visitors are flocking to the birthplace of around 9,000 yuan a year. Peng said ple of years but we couldn’t afford the guests loved purchasing their better treatment so she passed the revolution, creating business opportunities to dried bamboo shoots and sweet away,” he said. potatoes, tea, as well as handcrafted In the entrance to Xiao’s house, a lift villagers out of poverty. Zhang Yangfei reports bamboo baskets and chopsticks, plate issued by the local government from Ji’an, Jiangxi province. which all generate more income for hangs on the main door. It reads: the family. “This family is in difficulty due to “It really turned our lives upside their daughter’s disease. They have a down,” she said while greeting a monthly overdraft and annual extra group of tourists from Sichuan pro medical costs of 20,000 yuan vince who’d stayed before. ($2,786). Personal wish: they want The success of the homestays has to buy a gas stove.” seen companies from other provin ces start investing in the village. Impoverished past In Dacang village, a vast carpet of Before the tourism boom, the lotus flowers spreads to the foot of majority of people living in Jing the mountain and the residents’ old gangshan were trapped by poverty, houses have been redesigned and due mainly to the difficult terrain, refurbished with modern ensuite isolation and poor farming condi rooms. tions. These homestays are run profes Like Xiao, many once made a sionally by a Shanghai company. Vil humble living by planting rice, trad lagers rent their houses to the ing salt and raising livestock. company and also hold shares. To Located deep in the mountains maintain the accommodation sta without access to public transporta tus of a homestay, the company also tion, many villages in Jinggangshan offers jobs to locals. are isolated. Young adults depart to Clockwise from top: Tourists from Guangdong province conduct teambuilding activities while wearing Red Army uniforms in The booming tourism industry seek employment in cities and other Dajing village, Jinggangshan city, Jiangxi province, last month; university students from Anhui province and villagers from Bashang has also enticed many villagers who provinces, leaving behind the elder prepare meals together in Jinggangshan last month, to experience the Red Army spirit as a part of “Red Education”; a visitor buys local earlier sought their fortunes else ly and young to farm crops which souvenirs in Jinggangshan last month. PHOTOS BY WANG JING / CHINA DAILY where to return home. barely produce enough food to fill When the first cafe in the village their stomachs. opened in May, Lin Xiaoyuan, who According to the villagers, the Steeped in history and grew up hearing the stories of left home in 2007 looking for work cold mountain water is not good for Known as “the cradle of the Chi their ancestors. opportunities in Chongqing, Zhe the crops. The terrain also means nese revolution”, Jinggangshan was When I actually heard the martyrs’ Bashang village, for example, is jiang, Sichuan and Guangdong pro there is little available farming land, the first revolutionary base of the where Mao stayed while his health vinces, decided to return to the village while the weather make vegetation communist Party of China and the descendants telling those stories in front of recovered. and work as a waitress at the cafe. susceptible to pests. headquarters of its army led by Mao me like an old father, tasted the rough food Dacang village is where he first The other waitresses have similar sto Zhu Taosheng, who once lived in Zedong. met Yuan and convinced him, with a ries. poverty in Dajing village, said they After the aborted Autumn Har and had the training, I just felt deeply touched gift of more than 100 rifles, to join “The salary is actually not more ate what they grew and bamboo was vest Uprising in 1927, one of the ear by their perseverance and faith.” his cause. than before, but it feels good to be their only source of income. ly armed insurrections by the The grandfather of Li Guofeng, home,” said Lin, who is married with “In the ’90s, we couldn’t even fill Communists against the Kuomint Li Zhaoning, student from Anqing Normal University the Party secretary of Bashang vil two children. our stomachs. The rice yield was ang and the landlords of Hunan lage, was one of the Red Army mar Jinggangshan was officially very low and many young men in province, Mao led his forces to Jing tyrs known for sending a white removed from the poverty list in the village couldn’t find wives,” he gangshan. There, he established a horse to Mao as a gift. February 2017, becoming one of the said. base with the help of local chieftains To take advantage of these and first in the country to be recatego Zhu, 59, hasn’t been able to work Yuan Wencai and Wang Zuo. other stories and present a picture rized after President Xi Jinping set for over 40 years after breaking his It was there that Mao developed of how the Red Army fought under the goal of eradicating poverty by leg when he was 17. He married, a ruralbased strategy. He put for harsh conditions, the city has next year. though, and the burden of labor fell ward the idea of an “armed inde designed “Red Education” courses, Last year, Xiao Fumin used on his wife.

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