6 | Wednesday, January 27, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CHINA

FROM THE GRASSROOTS

Children run amid a sea of flowers in Dongtou village, Huichang county, Jiangxi province, in March. PHOTOS BY ZHU HAIPENG / FOR CHINA DAILY Cleanup plan restores faded rural beauty

Formerly rundown villages are attracting visitors and boosting local incomes. Zhao Xinying reports from Huichang, Jiangxi.

alking along the “Since then, the villagers have smooth cement road stopped pouring wastewater direct­ and looking at the ly onto the roads and have started beautiful houses sur­ pouring it into the sewers,” he said. roundedW by neat farmland and The wastewater converges in chicken coops, visitors to Daxiba vil­ two treatment tanks. After a num­ lage would never believe the state it ber of treatments in the facilities, was in just a few years ago. the dirty, smelly liquid is trans­ “Garbage was piled up on the formed into nontoxic, harmless doorsteps and sewage was poured clear water, which can be used to directly onto the roads. The mess irrigate farmland. mixed with the dirt and made the “Daxiba’s reputation as a dirty roads smelly and muddy to walk place is history,” Chen said. “Now, on,” recalled Liu Jinhua, Party secre­ the village is renowned across the tary of the village in Huichang coun­ county as a beautiful, neat and liva­ ty, Jiangxi province. ble place.” “A flyswatter was a necessity in Residents of Xiaomi, a township every household, and villagers had 30 km from Daxiba, were also accus­ to be prepared to swat flies all the tomed to seeing the local roads cov­ time because there were so many of ered by black water and mud. them.” Unhusked rice is spread in a square in Daxiba village, Huichang, Farmers pack daisies at a flower­planting base in Banjing village, However, the black water was not Those conditions persisted until during the November harvest season. Huichang, in November. sewage. Rather, it was a result of February 2018, when the Central water and soil leaking from an aban­ Committee of the Communist Party doned coal mine on a small hill in of China and the State Council, Chi­ With the help of the local govern­ hills, a wide range of vegetation, richer after the village was lifted out the village. na’s Cabinet, issued a plan to ment, they obtained funding of clear ponds and neat farmland. of poverty in 2016, many demol­ Though coal extraction ceased improve rural living environments more than 1 million yuan ($155,000) As such, officials had long ished their shabby adobe houses many years ago, the vegetation nationwide. and launched a systematic project dreamed of using the beautiful scen­ Nanchang and started building new homes. destroyed by the mining activities In line with the plan, the efforts to improve the living environment. ery to attract visitors from urban The village committee recom­ was not restored. When it rained — focused on the disposal of house­ The first step was to build cement areas and develop rural tourism, JIANGXI mended that the residents, who are a frequent occurrence in Xiaomi — hold waste and sewage, as well as roads to connect the village with the according to Liu Houshan, director FUJIAN all members of the Hakka people, black mud slid downhill along improving the appearance of the vil­ outside world and link all 160 of the Gufang village council. build their houses in the tradition­ with the water, entering farmland, lages. In addition, a goal was set that households in the village. Four resi­ The road was one of the barriers Huichang al style, which is characterized by rivers and even people’s homes. by the end of last year, the improve­ dents were hired to clean the roads to that development. “At the time, grey roofs, white walls and rafters The runoff was a headache for ments would be obvious with the every day, Liu said. very few people wanted to travel to CHINA DAILY that extend from the external local people until early 2018, when a countryside looking generally clean, Since then, the villagers have said our village because of the lack of walls, according to Chen Rong­ project to restore the environment tidy and orderly. farewell to “being covered with dust road coverage,” Liu Houshan said. Every morning, teams of cleaners qing, an official. “Now with quite a around the mine started, according The campaign was conducted in on sunny days and mud on rainy The situation was improved by collect all the garbage and place it in large number of Hakka­style hous­ to Yan Zhiwang, a villager whose all of Huichang’s villages, including days” as a result of the dirt roads, he expanding the original 3.5­meter­ a huge skip at the village entrance. es, our village looks unique and home lies at the foot of the formerly Daxiba. added. wide village road into a 6­meter­ Later, other workers arrive to collect beautiful,” he said. barren hill. Unlike Daxiba, Gufang, a village 3 wide two­lane carriageway. the rubbish, he added. Yang Yunchun, a Daxiba native, is Pine trees, camellias and grasses Waste disposal kilometers from Huichang’s down­ “With a wider road and more con­ He said the village also helped res­ excited about the changes. were planted to prevent rain from A report by the Ministry of Agri­ town, had a 3.5­meter­wide cement venient transportation, we’ve seen idents to erect fences outside their “Now, everywhere is so clean and washing the soil away, he said. At culture and Rural Affairs showed road that connected it with the out­ more tourists,” said Liu Houshan, houses in line with unified stan­ tidy that there is no garbage to be the same time, a moat was dug to that as of September 2018, almost 25 side world. Things were still diffi­ adding that about 10,000 visitors dards. seen,” the 64­year­old said. “You separate the hill from farmland, percent of domestic waste in China’s cult, though. arrive every month, while at peak On their small pieces of land rarely see any flies, either.” rivers and residences, said the rural areas was left untreated, while “The road was good, but it was a times the number can exceed 2,000 enclosed by wire fences, the resi­ 54­year­old, who participated in 80 percent of sewage in the country­ headache whenever vehicles head­ a day, which boosts local incomes. dents can raise chickens and plant Clear water, green hills the project. side was not properly processed. ing in different directions met. The vegetables, thus making household The unsupervised discharge of “Now, just two years later, the hill Moreover, one­third of villages road was too narrow for two cars to Clean living environment environments tidier and cleaner. sewage no longer troubles Daxiba’s is green again and those of us who lacked sealed roads. pass at the same time,” Gufang resi­ Liu Jinhua said that in addition to “In addition, we assess the clean­ residents. live at the bottom don’t have to wor­ In Daxiba, which suffered from all dent Zou Yongcun said. the improved road, other changes liness of all the households twice a With the help of the local govern­ ry about dirty, unsafe mudflows,” he of those problems, residents and The problem bothered local offi­ have been made to Daxiba’s living month: The five families with the ment, an underground sewer net­ said. “We are so happy with the local officials decided to take the cials as they were concerned about environment. Trash cans have been cleanest homes are praised and the work was laid in April to connect all changes.” opportunities presented by the the development of the village. placed on every doorstep and the five with the worst are publicly criti­ the households in the village and improvement plan and create a Gufang was traditionally known villagers are required to dump all cized,” Liu Jinhua said. treatment facilities were also Chen Xia’nan, Tian Zimu and new­look village. as a beautiful settlement with green their domestic garbage into them. Meanwhile, as people became installed, according to Chen. Liu Yue contributed to this story. Going organic helps fruit business blossom

By ZHAO XINYING “Through livestreaming, audien­ “What’s more, the freshness and The couple’s efforts quickly saw In early 2019, the couple invest­ markets and online platforms ces, especially high­end people from high quality seen via the livestream their orchard expand to 47 hectares. ed 300,000 yuan ($46,300) to build means Wang never needs to wor­ Standing among navel orange big cities like Shanghai and have great appeal for the audience, However, as the orchard grew, coops and buy about 5,000 chick­ ry about sales of her produce. trees hung with golden fruit as Guangzhou (capital of Guangdong encouraging some people to weeding became a major problem ens from Hubei and launch their Organic eggs are especially chickens walked and ate the grass province), can see what my orchard become frequent buyers,” she said. because the use of herbicides would new venture. popular with consumers in big around her feet, Wang Qiongfang looks like and how the oranges and Located in Xiaomi, a township in affect the quality of the oranges, The move helped Wang and Wu cities who are pursuing better used a livestream to show her audi­ eggs are harvested. They are very Huichang county in the eastern while hiring workers to weed the reduce costs and improve the quality of life and believe in the ence the organic citrus fruit and curious about, and interested in, province of Jiangxi, Wang’s orange land manually would be too costly. orange yield, so they have tasted the nutritional value and safety of eggs she harvests from her orchard. these things,” Wang said. orchard only covered 6.7 hectares in Faced with that dilemma, the cou­ sweetness of going organic. organic food. The online platform is a new way She added that she already had 2003 when she and her family relo­ ple decided to go organic and raise The trees now yield 500 to 600 “Our entire daily clutch of eggs for the 43­year­old to boost her busi­ more than 20,000 followers on all cated there from Hubei province. chickens in the orchard. metric tons of oranges each year, usually sells out the same day,” ness, and the orchard’s beautiful types of online platforms. That’s a Her husband, Wu Chengxiao, con­ They knew the birds would eat while the chickens lay more than Wang said. scenery has attracted a large num­ satisfactory number given that she centrated on growing the produce, the grass and weeds, while their 5,000 eggs a day, with each selling at ber of followers. Some purchase has only been doing the livestreams while Wang took responsibility for droppings would provide organic 2 yuan on online platforms. Tian Zimu, Liu Yue and Chen Wang’s produce regularly. for a short time. sales. fertilizer for the trees. The combination of traditional Xia’nan contributed to this story.