8 kilometers of road: After "Yugong" dug through "Tianlu", within 7 years, 6 people sacrificed themselves for rural revitalization | poverty alleviation | Tianlu | Xiazhuang | Mao Xianglin

On an evening at the end of June, at the bottom of a huge sinkhole in the upper reaches of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, the scorching heat of the day gradually dissipated. The cliffs on all sides of the sinkhole hang down, and half a bright moon shines on the small mountain village hanging on the slope.

A quarrel disrupted the peace in the village. "Don't mention the house to me, I will get angry when I mention it!" "What kind of land is in our house is up to you the final say?" On the courtyard in front of Mao Xianglin's house, a villager shouted excitedly.

This is a village meeting being held in Xiazhuang Village, Zhuxian Township, Wushan County, Chongqing. Mao Xianglin is the secretary of the village party branch and the director of the village committee. Since the development of ecotourism in Xiazhuang Village last year, there have been many things to coordinate and discuss with the people. This year, more than 20 village meetings like this have been held.

At the evening party, after the township cadres promoted the policies related to self built houses in rural areas, the villager expressed dissatisfaction that the nature of their own land as "permanent basic farmland" has affected the subsequent construction and renovation of houses and the processing of property certificates. Several village officials took turns explaining historical reasons and policies to him, but he remained indignant and his voice grew louder: "If you don't solve it for me, I'll go and cut off the road!"

Upon hearing that someone was about to cut off the circuit, Mao Xianglin, who had originally lowered his head to take notes, frowned. No one understands the importance of the road better than him. He leaned forward curled up in the bamboo chair and shouted, "Don't make noise! What's the noise!" Secretary Mao spoke, and the crowd immediately quieted down.

Road is the lifeblood of Xiazhuang. In 1997, Mao Xianglin led the villagers to shoulder the most primitive way of carrying and chiseling mountains to clear the way. It took 7 years and six people sacrificed to build this 8-kilometer long cliff "Heavenly Road", connecting Xiazhuang to the outside world. Because of this road, Xiazhuang Village has shed the label of poverty and backwardness, and it is precisely because of this road that the story of Xiazhuang people building roads is known to the world.

Every bend on the cliff "Heavenly Road" makes people feel the hardships of the people of Xiazhuang in those years. The pictures in this article are all taken by Lei Ce Yuan except for special labels.

"I once said, 'Abandoning a small family for everyone.' The common people need to know the law, understand the law, and also understand the big picture. Now everyone is saying, 'My interests are greater than heaven.' They often block and dig roads, which is not a good solution. It will damage the reputation of Xiazhuang and harm everyone." Mao Xianglin said.

Today, nearly 20 years after the completion of the "Tianlu" project, Xiazhuang Village has ushered in new development opportunities, but new contradictions and challenges have also emerged: insufficient resources, insufficient characteristics, inability to retain people, inability to keep up with the ideological concepts of villagers, and the contradiction between intensive management by foreign enterprises and independent management by villagers... These problems are testing Mao Xianglin, who is already 64 years old this year.

He said he "still wants to 'catch fire' and 'burn' the lower village again". "This is the ideal!" Mao Xianglin's expression was as resilient and stubborn as when he was repairing a road back then.

The small mountain village hanging on the slope at the bottom of the Tiankeng is Xiazhuang Village.

Build the "Heavenly Road"

The narrow road in front of me, without any forks and winding forward on the cliff, is the only way to enter and exit Xiazhuang. How dangerous is this road? It's difficult to experience it without personally experiencing it.

The car departs from Wushan County, drives for nearly an hour to get off the highway, and then takes a section of the provincial road. You can see a cement stone bridge erected in the mountain, with the letter "Yu'er Creek" written on it, which can be considered as the starting point of this road.

The car continued to climb forward, and as it approached the end of the road, the person sitting in the car straightened their waist and instinctively confirmed whether their seat belts were fastened. Approaching the mountaintop, the vehicle decelerated and the driver skillfully found the maximum turning radius. The left side of the car distanced itself from the steep cliff, and the right side approached the protective fence on the roadside. With a flick, the car turned this bend, and beside it was a vast abyss. Not walking a few hundred meters, it's another bend. Move forward and turn again. Along the way, I don't know how many turns have been made, and each turn makes people feel the hardships of the people in Xiazhuang who dug mountains and roads back then.

"Xiazhuang is like a well, with a depth of tens of thousands of zhang. Walking back and forth makes one dizzy and dizzy." This is a rhyme passed down by generations of Xiazhuang people. Xiazhuang belongs to a typical karst landform and is a "Tiankeng Village", surrounded by cliffs on all sides, with a vertical distance of over 1000 meters from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the valley.

Before the road was completed, generations of people from Xiazhuang had to climb a cliff with nearly 90 degrees and 108 turns, and walk from sunrise to sunset before leaving Xiazhuang Village. According to statistics from the Xiazhuang Village Committee before road construction, out of the 397 people in Xiazhuang at that time, more than 150 had never left Xiazhuang, more than 160 had never seen the road, and more than 360 had never watched TV. Due to the rugged and dangerous mountain roads, in the past half century, 23 people in Xiazhuang Village have fallen from cliffs to death, and more than 70 people have been injured and disabled

Where is the way out for Xiazhuang? In the summer of 1997, Mao Xianglin, who had been the village party branch secretary for 5 years, went to the county to study and saw the frequently passing Qixing Village. Due to the road being connected, the villagers built small western-style houses, bought televisions and refrigerators at home, and their lives underwent earth shattering changes. He made up his mind: to repair the road!

But when this short man, known as the "furry dwarf," first said about road construction, no one believed that it could be done. Without policy support, funding, and equipment, what kind of repair can we take? Mao Xianglin said, "We cannot be the last batch of people from Xiazhuang! Building roads is the only way out for Xiazhuang." He first held three cadre meetings, and then held four consecutive mass meetings, finally completing everyone's ideological work.

Before the highway was completed, Xiazhuang people had to climb over a cliff of nearly 90 degrees and 108 turns to get out of Xiazhuang Village. 23 people fell to death from the cliff and more than 70 people were injured and disabled. Photo from Xiazhuang Village History Museum

In December of that year, the first mountain cannon exploded in Yu'er Creek.

Opening the "Heavenly Road" on the cliff, the people of Xiazhuang can only use the most primitive methods, using steel drills and sledgehammers to challenge the mountains. They set up a red rope to survey the road, suspended from the cliff top, and swung on a swing halfway up the mountain to survey. The road is also made by villagers swinging in the air, climbing on the walls, drilling holes, and then using explosives to blast out a foothold on the cliff. They continue to shoulder and carry, and move forward.

The road builders live in the mountains and cannot return home once every ten and a half days. The mountains are damp and cold, so they use plastic cloth and cotton to make a "cold proof three piece set". When sleeping, people crawl in side by side. Afraid of falling off the cliff after falling asleep in the middle of the night, everyone needs to tie a thick rope around their waist, with the other end of the rope fixed to a tree

When we saw villager Yang Henghua in Xiazhuang, he was sitting in the village health clinic for treatment. Back then, he was a barefoot doctor in the village and also a well-known strongman from afar. He can carry a 770 pound steel pipe and walk over 200 meters in one breath; A giant stone that can only be shaken by two or three strong men, he can move it alone.

"Before the road was repaired, the medicine worth a thousand yuan had to be divided into two parts to be carried back to the lower village. The physiological saline in glass bottles was heavy and difficult to move, and there were very few types of medicines that could be brought back." Yang Henghua recalled. This is not the most powerless thing for him. "In the past, people in Xiazhuang fell ill, and minor illnesses turned into serious illnesses. If the village couldn't cure them, they would lift them outside. Several times, before people could lift them out of Xiazhuang, they would die halfway." He believed Mao Xianglin's words, "Only by getting through the road can there be a way out."

When repairing roads, Yang Henghua often carries a medicine box to the construction site. 80% of the people on the construction site have suffered "red injuries", so he needs to deal with them on site. "It's all fate, life and death are a matter of one second."

To open a "heavenly road" on the cliff, the people of Xiazhuang can only use the most primitive method to challenge the mountain with steel rods and sledgehammers. Photo from Xiazhuang Village History Museum

In January 1999, Huang Huiyuan, a villager who had already settled down in Hubei, returned to Xiazhuang to participate in road construction and even purchased a rock drill from his own pocket to bring back to Xiazhuang. On the night he returned home, he enthusiastically told Mao Xianglin that the "blasting machine" could chisel 300 meters of rock every day, but at that time, 100 people from Xiazhuang could only drill 70 meters a day. Mao Xianglin was very happy to hear this.

"I called Huang Huiyuan back to repair the road, who would have thought..." Mao Xianglin still couldn't let go. On National Day that year, Huang Huiyuan was killed by a huge rock falling from his head during the construction process and fell into the abyss. He was only 36 years old. And just over 50 days before his sacrifice, villager Shen Qingfu also fell off a cliff at a similar location.

After nearly two years of road construction, Mao Xianglin felt that he could handle any major difficulties, but that time, he really lost heart. When sending Huang Huiyuan's body back to Xiazhuang, Mao Xianglin knelt in front of Huang Yikun, his old father, with a thud.

Huang Yikun said at the time, "It's impossible to build such a suspended road without dying. I think my son died worth it and died with honor."

Is the road still being repaired or not? "Xiu!" clenched fists were raised in the crowd one by one. Surrounded by cliffs and dotted with stars in the sky, at the bottom of the sinkhole, hundreds of people gathered around a coffin, shouting loudly, as if taking an oath or fighting against fate. The next day, the villagers went to the construction site again

The cave where villagers used to cook and sleep while building roads.

In March 2004, the over 2-meter-wide and 8-kilometer long "Heavenly Road" on the cliff of Xiazhuang was finally fully connected. That day, the villagers cried, and Mao Xianglin also cried. Amidst the festive crackling of firecrackers, Mao Xianglin leaned on the Jiefang brand truck that was driving into the village and told the driver: Drive slowly, many people in the village have not seen cars yet.

Cut off the root of poverty

At the entrance of Xiazhuang Village, there is a memorial hall with the names of 108 villagers who built roads in the past engraved on sculptures in front of the hall. There are also annotations from Xiazhuang people about themselves: self-improvement, self-reliance, and tenacious struggle.

Two years ago, Professor Wang Changwei from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics led a team of students from the school's "Thousand Village Survey" to Xiazhuang. That survey helped him understand the meaning of these 12 words.

The "Thousand Villages Survey" is an activity that has been ongoing at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics for 15 years, with a total of 24000 students participating and research footprints covering more than 11000 rural areas across the country. Wang Changwei, who is engaged in rural economic research, has also visited many rural areas. Even so, Xiazhuang Village and Mao Xianglin still left a deep impression on him and his classmates.

Wang Changwei said that he saw an image of a "leader" who dared to think, act, and take responsibility in Mao Xianglin. "The road has been paved, and Mao Xianglin could have slept on the merit book, but he didn't. Instead, he has been exploring how to help the villagers get out of poverty and become rich."

The sculpture in front of the Village Mouth Memorial Hall is engraved with the names of 108 villagers who built roads in the past, as well as the annotations from the people of Xiazhuang: self-improvement, self-reliance, and tenacious struggle.

In June of this year, Mao Xianglin was invited to Shanghai University of Finance and Economics to participate in the launch ceremony of the school's "Thousand Village Survey" this year.

Only two months after the opening of the "Heavenly Road" on the cliff, Mao Xianglin led the villagers to repair the road to Xiazhuang Primary School, connecting all the village courtyards. Under his efforts, the local government widened and hardened the originally 2-meter-wide tractor road, and added guardrails to build the "Four Good Rural Roads".

Mao Xianglin knew that repairing the road was just the first step, and what he truly wanted to do was to completely rid Xiazhuang of poverty and backwardness.

He once heard people say that lacquer trees are valuable, so he led a few young adults in the village to climb the primitive forest over 1000 meters above sea level to dig back lacquer trees for cultivation. Unexpectedly, in summer, all lacquer trees died from heat; He also led the villagers to plant tobacco, but the climate in Xiazhuang was not suitable, and tobacco cultivation also declared a failure; Seeing other villages making money from planting mulberry and raising silkworms, he called on the villagers to work together. Half a year later, the mulberry trees grew lush, but the silkworms died completely... Several failures in a row caused heavy losses to the villagers, and Mao Xianglin's reputation in the village was greatly diminished.

"It was my blind command and lack of scientific knowledge that caused the villagers to suffer." Mao Xianglin reviewed at the village meeting and then resigned from his position as the village party branch secretary, going out to work alone.

With the efforts of Mao Xianglin, the local government widened and hardened the originally 2-meter-wide tractor road, and added guardrails to build the "Four Good Rural Roads".

However, the longer the time, the more villagers feel that without Mao Xianglin's village, it is like without a backbone. In 2010, Mao Xianglin was elected as the village director by the villagers, and he received 361 votes out of 388 votes. Mao Xianglin, who was worried about his hometown, returned to Xiazhuang.

This time, Mao Xianglin did not act recklessly, but invited agricultural experts from the village and county to investigate and analyze the natural conditions of Xiazhuang. With the advice of experts, a plan for planting citrus and watermelon has been determined. In 2019, the citrus fruits in Xiazhuang achieved initial fruiting, and the village's citrus sales revenue reached nearly 200000 yuan. Last year, the citrus fruits from Xiazhuang were sold at a price of 5.5 yuan per kilogram, and the entire village sold citrus fruits for over 1.7 million yuan.

Xiazhuang Village, which was once the poorest village in Wushan County, has taken the lead in achieving poverty alleviation throughout the county. In 2020, the per capita disposable income of Xiazhuang Village reached 13784 yuan, more than 40 times that before the completion of the "Tianlu" project.

In February 2021, the National Poverty Alleviation Summary and Commendation Conference was held in Beijing. At the meeting, the General Secretary mentioned Mao Xianglin in his report: "Mao Xianglin, the Party branch secretary of Xiazhuang Village, Zhuxian Township, Wushan County, Chongqing, who led the villagers to dig a road to the outside world on a cliff for 7 years, said: 'Even if our generation has been poor for ten years, we must ensure that the younger generation lives a good life.'"

In recent years, Mao Xianglin has gained many identities, such as "Touching China 2020 Person", "National Poverty Alleviation Role Model", "Chinese Good Person", and National People's Congress representative... His social affairs and opportunities to go out have also increased. Mao Xianglin always seizes every opportunity to "demand resources" for Xiazhuang. For example, every time he meets local or state-owned enterprise leaders, private entrepreneurs, university presidents, and even prison officials, he will proactively leave their contact information. Every year, as the citrus ripens, he sends WeChat and makes phone calls one by one. "This unit helped me sell a few tons, while the other one bought a few cars and didn't even allow us to pay for the shipping fee," Mao Xianglin chuckled. "The citrus sells well, and the benefit is for all the villagers."

Once, the leaders of the city visited Xiazhuang for inspection. Mao Xianglin proposed to develop ecotourism in Xiazhuang, but the leaders believed that the conditions in Xiazhuang were difficult to meet. Mao Xianglin repeatedly made demands. The leader saw his persistence and finally relaxed his stance, proposing three prerequisites: first, to first promote the development of the industry in Xiazhuang; Secondly, improve the environment in the village; Thirdly, repair the houses in the village.

Mao Xianglin readily agreed and concentrated his efforts to accomplish these three tasks. Quickly, various resources and projects were allocated to Xiazhuang. "The road has been under construction for almost 20 years, but the spirit of the people in Xiazhuang cannot be lost and will continue to be passed down from generation to generation. We need to seize opportunities to achieve rural revitalization and make Xiazhuang prosperous." Mao Xianglin said.

Mao Xianglin is checking the fruiting situation of this year in his own citrus grove.

Encounter "trouble"

Adjacent to Mao Xianglin's family is a small courtyard called "Sanheyuan Farmhouse", which is the first farmhouse opened in Xiazhuang Village.

Yang Yuanding, who is 61 years old this year, is the youngest son of Mao Xianglin. When he was repairing "Tianlu", he was the village accountant and one of the few high school students in the village. Due to the heavy burden on his family, he returned to Xiazhuang after graduating from high school. After the road was repaired, tourists occasionally came to the village and often asked if it was possible to eat? Where can I stay for a while? Yang Yuanding, who had a lively mind, thought that perhaps he could open a farmhouse. But he doesn't have the money to renovate the house, he wants to run a farmhouse, and his family is also short of manpower.

After Mao Xianglin learned about it, he took advantage of the opportunity of the renovation of the dilapidated house to have Yang Yuanding, Yang Hengshuang, and Yuan Tangqing, three impoverished households, build their renovated houses together and jointly establish this "Sanheyuan Rural Recreation". In its first year of operation, this small courtyard generated 60000 to 70000 yuan in income for three families, making impoverished households a model for poverty alleviation in the village. The villagers have also followed suit, and the small village of Xiazhuang has opened six or seven farmhouses, attracting more and more tourists.

In May last year, Xiazhuang Village introduced the "homestay+" model that Wushan Cultural Industry Company was focusing on creating, which began to operate - transforming the farmhouses of more than ten villagers who voluntarily applied for renovation into "Xiazhuang Courtyards", and being managed by the cultural industry company. In addition, facilities such as cafes, parking lots, walkways, and pavilions have also been built, and the Communist Party of China Wushan County Party School has set up a campus in Xiazhuang.

Ecotourism has developed, and Xiazhuang is also bustling with not only individual tourists and tourist groups, but also grassroots cadres from all over the country who come to learn from the experience. On average, hundreds of people visit Xiazhuang every day, and the daily reception during this year's May Day holiday has reached one or two thousand people.

A plaque in Xiazhuang Village reads, "Let's move towards the future together.".

But trouble also comes with it.

That day, Mao Xianglin was sitting in the yard accepting an interview with reporters when he happened to encounter his cousin coming to his door to give him advice. Originally, after the cultural and industrial company settled in Xiazhuang, although it attracted many tourists, all the visitors were arranged by the cultural and industrial company to eat in the cafeteria and live in the "Xiazhuang courtyard". As tourists were being pulled into Xiazhuang one after another, the business of several villagers' self operated farmhouses was not as good as before, and they harbored resentment in their hearts.

Mao Xianglin explained that when the cultural and industrial company settled in, the village also called on villagers to hand over their farmhouses for operation. Not only was the decoration free, but the villagers could also receive half of the accommodation profit after the opening. But at that time, many villagers had doubts about this business model, and even the already open farmhouse was unwilling to join, with only a dozen or so households offering houses. Nowadays, many villagers see profits and want to take out their houses, but the funds and development capabilities of cultural and industrial companies are also limited

That night, a village meeting was held on the courtyard outside Mao Xianglin's house. A young cadre stationed in the village talked about the economic situation from the international environment and hoped that everyone would accept that "making money in business is inherently more or less.". From the expressions on the faces of several villagers who opened farmhouses, it is evident that their dissatisfaction has not subsided. This leads to the opening scene of this article.

Mao Xianglin finally couldn't help but speak. "When I tried to persuade you to sign up, you didn't sign up. But now that you see someone else making money and you're envious, how can that make sense?" "Now that the road has been repaired and people have become more affluent, everyone's minds have increased. They have forgotten the unity and cooperation they used to work together on road construction, which really makes me feel uneasy. I'm already 64 years old this year, and I'm patting my butt and leaving. What can you do with me? But I can't do this because I've never forgotten that I'm from Xiazhuang. Our spirit in Xiazhuang cannot be lost!"

That night, the village meeting at Mao Xianglin's doorstep remained open until 11 o'clock at night

Towards the future

Afterwards, Mao Xianglin said that he was very clear that "now is a crucial time for the development of Xiazhuang, and if we grasp it well, we can take it to the next level." He calculated that since the development capacity of the cultural and industrial company is limited, he would introduce some other resources. For example, recently he accepted a proposal from a Shanghai company to provide drawings and plans, and then discuss further cooperation.

Upon hearing a tourist's opinion that there were no scenic spots to see in Xiazhuang except for "Tianlu", he and the village officials formulated a development plan for Xiazhuang for the next five years: building observation platforms and hiking trails, developing ancient caves and night views, and creating river rafting.

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