'Red tourism' boosts green development in Huichang

Even though I have been gorging on various specialties, such as the juicy tangelos, chewy dried tofu and smooth rice noodle, from Huichang county in Jiangxi province, for nine years in a roll, since my employer, China Daily, started helping the 1,041-year-old southeastern county in poverty alleviation work early in 2014, I was hesitant to go when sent on a training program there. What could I expect in a county that has just been lifted out of poverty four years ago? Perhaps only broken down villages with poor hygiene.

The county indeed has remote villages that take hours to arrive at, but poor hygiene is nowhere to be found. The streets in the towns and villages that are relatively isolated are the farthest from being dirty. And throughout the two-day-training program, I could not help continuing to be wowed by the luscious scenery, spicy yet oddly delicious food and, most importantly, the cordial and loving people in this ancient mountainous zone.

The people of Huichang made significant contributions and sacrifices to the Chinese Revolution. In the war time, 77,200 people in Huichang supported the front-line fighting, 38,600 people joined the Red Army, and 7,704 revolutionary martyrs are known by name, with over 30,000 unnamed martyrs. Huichang has witnessed the victories, as well as numerous harsh setbacks that the Red Army headed into.

This fervent piece of land has also seen numerous heroic deeds and creation of well-known works by revolutionary leaders including Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. On July 23, 1934, Chairman Mao climbed to the peak outside Huichang city and wrote the famous poem "Qingping Yue: Huichang"：

Dawn tinges the eastern skies.
Boast not you start before sunrise.
We have trodden green mountains without growing old.
What scenery unique here we behold!

Peaks after peaks outside Huichang, as if in motion,
Undulate until they join with the eastern ocean.
Our warriors, pointing south, see Guangdong loom
In a richer green and a lusher gloom.

The line "What scenery unique here we behold!" has become particularly well-known.

Today relying on a group of revolutionary sites, including Mao Zedong's former residence in the 1930s, a red cultural and tourism study base has been built, integrating the inheritance and education of red culture, scientific popularization, rural sightseeing, tourism, and leisure. Since its official opening in June 2021, the Scenic and Unique Garden has hosted more than 1,800 red training activities.

Huichang, apart from developing “red tourism”, is also rich in natural beauty. The forest coverage rate of the entire county has reached 80.87 percent, and the proportion of days with good air quality and the rate of good surface water quality are both 100 percent. Within the county, there is the national scenic spot of Hanxianyan, which is said to be where Han Zhongli, one of the Eight Immortals in Taoist legend, achieved immortality.

Indeed, Huichang remains a relatively undeveloped county and it has more to do in the path, not only to shake off poverty, but also to achieve modernization. It is confronting almost all challenges that all counties in China are confronting: the hollowing out of the rural areas, the left-behind children, lack of industries, meager opportunities to riches. But changes are coming into sight.

Based on the high-quality natural ecology of Zikeng village, education industry-leading enterprises have been introduced to build a characteristic town, construct an industrial complex, and create a demonstration village for rural revitalization in Zikeng, setting a new model for rural revitalization. With the official operation of the Hejun Education Town, which settled in the village and included a college, a large number of out-of-town consumers have moved in, bringing many job opportunities and entrepreneurial opportunities in commercial services to the villagers in the resettlement area.

New innovative methods are tried in Huichang to enhance the county's poverty reduction achievements and increase the people's welfare. In China's path to modernization, Huichang's efforts, eventually successful or not, could be a good lesson for the whole country.

As I wrap up my two-day training program, I couldn't help but thinking that two days is too short, only enough to kindle my curiosity and fondness for this unique county, its scenery, delicacy and people.

The author is a writer with China Daily.