Lixia County: Ecological Tourism 'Back Garden' Drives Rural Poverty Alleviation
In early March, the author entered Liu Jiatan Village, Wujiayuan Town, Lixia County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, in the Golden Leaf Agricultural Development Company’s tourism ecological agricultural park. Peach trees, pear trees, citrus fruits, and cloudberries were scattered across the mountains, with peach blossoms and pear blossoms blooming in the mountains, creating a beautiful picture. The picturesque scenery echoed with Jiangyuan and surrounding villages, forming a stunning landscape. Many tourists came to admire the flowers and enjoy the scenery.
Tourists take photos among the peach blossom groves.
Tourists take photos in the Golden Leaf Tourism Ecological Park.
In Liu Jiatan Village, nestled by the mountains and water, the environment is beautiful and the air is fresh. From a distance, you can also see the beautiful scenery of Jiangyuan and Wujiayuan Town’s old city district.
The ‘RV camping base’ is a major highlight. Tourists can rest in the ‘RV camping base’ after a day of playing, or brew a pot of tea, watch the scenery through the window, sing a song, or gather in groups to dine, chop vegetables and cook, and experience the fun of farmhouse dining.
From above, the Golden Leaf Tourism Ecological Park is viewed.
The RV rest area in the Golden Leaf Tourism Ecological Park.
Tourists experience farmhouse dining in the RV rest area.
Leveraging its unique geographical and natural resource advantages, the company aims to integrate regional resources organically and create ‘ecological agricultural tourism complex,’ building the county’s most beautiful ‘back garden.’ This is the foundation of Golden Leaf Company’s entrepreneurial concept. Simultaneously, it utilizes tourism to increase farmers’ income and accelerate the all-inclusive rural tourism poverty alleviation and elimination process. Covering 1500 acres, Golden Leaf Company was founded in 2017. Besides the supporting facilities and ongoing construction projects, it has developed 500 acres of boutique fruit orchards.
Aerial shot of the Golden Leaf Tourism Ecological Park.
Workers tending to the rosemary base.
In March, the company’s 505 acres of rosemary were lush and green, thriving. Workers are busy weeding, fertilizing, and preparing the base for harvesting. Rosemary is a perennial shrub. A single planting can be harvested for many years. Harvesting is primarily focused on leaves. The flowers and leaves can be extracted to produce antioxidants with excellent anti-oxidation properties, as well as rosemary essential oil. These products are widely used in pharmaceutical, deep-fried food, rich food, and edible oil preservation and quality, as well as in daily chemical industry for fragrance, air freshener, ant-insect agent and fungicide, and is also a perennial ornamental evergreen plant, with an annual income of over 4000 yuan per acre. The company has already signed a contract with Wulong Yangyang to sell it in May.
In early 2019, the company responded to the government’s call by registering and building households in Liu Jiatan Village and Hongyan Village in Lixia County, implementing a ‘company + base + poverty alleviation households + poverty alleviation’ interest-linking delegation assistance mechanism, directly assisting 257 households and 1000 impoverished people. In addition, the base continuously employs more than 100 impoverished people.
‘Next, with the support of the Lixia County Party Committee and County Government, we will further expand it by 500 acres. We will carefully design diversified tourism brands, utilizing a ‘tourism +’ platform to integrate industries and promote the synchronized development of tourism and ecology, and the combination of tourist attractions and poverty alleviation and elimination. ‘ Company spokesperson Yang Xu told the author.
Source: Xin Hunan Client
