After the flood in Yesanpo, Hebei: Homestay Scenic Area Trapped in Mud Water | Yesanpo | Homestay

Affected by heavy rainfall from July 29th to August 1st, on August 4th, the Propaganda Department of Laishui County Committee in Baoding City, Hebei Province issued a notice stating that the Yesanpo Scenic Area had suffered devastating damage. The villages around the Yesanpo Scenic Area have also been severely affected.

The Yesanpo Scenic Area is known as the "backyard of Beijing West" and is one of the few 5A level scenic spots in Hebei Province. Every year from May Day Labor Day to National Day, Yesanpo welcomes the peak tourism season of the year. Except for a few relatively remote villages, most of the villages in the scenic area have developed tourism, and local villagers mainly open restaurants and homestays.

"Even during the '7.21 heavy rain' in Beijing, the water level here did not rise to the level of the road, and everyone was wondering if it could be even higher than then." Several villagers from Xinggezhuang Village mentioned this statement. In previous decades, this village had never been affected by floods. The flood initially did not raise enough awareness among the villagers of Xinggezhuang in Sanpo Town.

Unexpected floods

On the afternoon of August 4th, Xinggezhuang Village, 5 kilometers away from the Yesanpo Scenic Area, was surrounded by homestays and farmhouses built along the main road of the village. Many villagers have their houses with damaged furniture, washed out doors and windows, and covered with a thick layer of mud in front and behind. Cleaning up the mud has become the most urgent task at present, and the villagers have borrowed small carts and shovels to shovel the mud out. The cart was full, but the thickness of the mud inside the house decreased slowly.

On that day, villager Wang Fang's family also specifically hired two masters to clean up the mud. Wang Fang was a little distressed by the 170 yuan a day wage. After all, the homestay that had just been built had emptied the family's savings, and now it has gone to waste.

Xinggezhuang Village is located along the Juma River. In 2003, the Jinpeng Road leading to Baili Gorge was opened, passing through the village and bringing a large amount of passenger flow to Xinggezhuang Village. Every household began to engage in tourism business.

Li Wanping, who is 45 years old, has been running a farmhouse since 2008. The pandemic in the first two years had a significant impact on his business. After the epidemic passed this year, Li Wanping thought he could finally do a big job, so he borrowed 200000 yuan from the bank, and with his savings of 100000 yuan, he renovated his four bedroom and two living room house. He also built a swimming pool at the entrance, which greatly improved the level. During the peak season, the house price can reach over 2000 yuan per night.

On July 29th, local rainfall began in Laishui, but at that time, Li Wanping was only worried that the rainy weather would affect business. It was not until noon on the 30th that the village cadres began to count whether the tourists would stay in Xinggezhuang Village that night, one by one, and informed that there would be a rainstorm. Li Wanping felt that the event was not good. "I watched as the rain continued to rain harder and harder, never stopping for a moment. It had never been like this in so many years, but the water level had not yet risen."

On July 30, Li Wanping's old house collapsed in the rainstorm. Before the collapse, he took out his 73 year old mother. Photo by Lei Ceyuan

Li Wanping thought of his 73 year old mother still living in an old house on the opposite slope, and quickly went up to pick her up and bring her back to his own home. Not long after, the roof of the old house collapsed in large areas. That night, Li Wanping almost stayed up all night. The next day at dawn, he saw that the water from the Juma River had already risen to the crops on the riverbank.

According to Li Wanping's recollection, the water level really started to rise rapidly after 10 o'clock on the 31st. Tourists staying in the village quickly withdrew outside, and almost all the villagers by the river had old houses on the slope opposite Jinpeng Road. Everyone quickly moved some rice, flour, oil, and daily necessities from their homes to the old houses. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the houses by the Juma River began to flood and quickly overflowed the road. When the water surged the most, it overflowed over 2 meters deep.

In the courtyard of Xinggezhuang Village. Photo by Yang Shuyuan

The time from flooding the road to invading villagers' homes was less than 2 hours. "In an evening, the water level rose to the level of an adult, and everyone was taking refuge on the second floor." The owner of the village snack shop recalled that all the goods in his warehouse and shelves were swept away by the flood.

The nearest village committee building to Jumahe has been swept away by the flood, leaving only a village committee sign and an open flat area. After the flood entered the farmyard, some villagers were afraid that the second floor would also be flooded. They found wooden boards and connected the second floor homestay with other higher houses in the village one meter away. They climbed in along the wooden boards.

The homestay business stranded in muddy water

It was not until August 4th that 61 year old Li Qinglong escorted the tourists from his homestay out of the village. "The bridge out of the village collapsed, and there were flooded roads everywhere, and tourists were trapped in the village for several days." These days, Li Qinglong looked around for villagers who could cook at home, and sent Congee and dry food to the trapped tourists. When the guests left, Li Qinglong did not charge them room fees.

On the 4th, Li Qinglong shoveled mud from the first floor of a mud filled homestay. Last year, he spent 1.5 million yuan to build this homestay with a somewhat classical garden style, which was carefully designed by someone he hired. Four rooms can sell for around 2000 yuan during peak season. This summer, Li Qinglong's inn was almost fully booked every day, with a profit of over 100000 yuan. Watching his homestay business come to life after enduring the epidemic, he is now stranded in this puddle of mud and water.

The walls of Li Qinglong's house bear the imprint of the flood. Photo by Yang Shuyuan

On the day of the flood on July 31st, Li Qinglong received a notice from the village cadres early in the morning: "Those who can go out and take shelter should try to go out." However, to Li Qinglong, this was just a suggestion and he could not determine how critical the situation was. It wasn't until his nephew called to inform him that many villages upstream had been submerged in floods that Li Qinglong became nervous and quickly moved his 12 guests to a higher building in the village.

Li Qinglong served as the village branch secretary for 2 years and was very clear about how the village gradually transformed from a "working village" to a current tourist resort. In 2012, he led the villagers to build the road that now leads into the village, and they began building homestays along both sides of the road. Tourism development has brought economic benefits to villages located in mountainous areas. "Although the village used to be only 5 kilometers away from the scenic area, the roads were built around the village and no tourists would come in," said Li Qinglong.

In 2016, the Beijing Tianjin Hebei Tourism Development Conference was held in Laishui County, and the village also benefited from it. "The beautification projects on both sides of our village road were invested by the government at that time," Li Qinglong recalled.

Houses washed away by floods. Photo by Yang Shuyuan

But right now, the villagers haven't had time to calculate how much damage there will be. On August 3rd, the water level in the village began to decline, but the homestay environment on both sides of the Xinggezhuang village road remained harsh. "The mud and water reached the waist level, and we could only walk with legs crossed inside." Villager Wang Fang recalled the scene and shed tears again. Her house, adjacent to her two sons' house, was all damaged.

On the afternoon of August 4th, at a well in Xinggezhuang Village, a woman in her forties squatted on the ground silently cleaning a suitcase filled with mud. "This is what I used when I went out to work before opening a homestay. What can I save? Now I don't even know if this suitcase will be used again after the flood, and I will have to go out to work again..." she said with a bitter smile.

The finally arrived supplies

The house was flooded and the old house also collapsed. Li Wanping and his family of five temporarily moved into the old office of the village cadre. The next few days will be very difficult for the villagers. The village was cut off from water and electricity, communication was interrupted, and communication with the outside world was cut off. Eating saved rice and noodles, I don't have to worry about it for now, but drinking water has become a big problem. After the tap water was cut off, the well water became too turbid to swallow. The villagers use buckets to catch the rainwater leaking from the eaves, then simply let it sit and boil it to drink. Not long after drinking, Li Wanping's son began to have diarrhea.

Xinggezhuang Village is still experiencing water and power outages. The villagers are pumping well water, and a few days ago they could only use buckets to collect rainwater for drinking. Photo by Lei Ceyuan

On August 3rd, the road into Xinggezhuang Village was robbed and cleared. After a whole day of loading operations on August 4th, the gap in the village bridge was blocked, and it was finally opened to traffic. On the evening of the 4th, upon hearing the news of the government distributing supplies, villagers from Xinggezhuang Village set out one after another, riding electric tricycles on bumpy muddy roads towards the village entrance. For many people, this is the first batch of government rescue supplies they received.

Li Wanping's family finally received 2 boxes of mineral water and 2 boxes of instant noodles. However, Xinggezhuang Village is still in a state of water shortage, power outage, and communication interruption. "I heard that several villages were severely affected by the disaster, and there were also casualties. Fortunately, we were all unharmed," said Li Wanping.

The homestay that Li Wanping just invested 300000 yuan to renovate this year was destroyed in the flood. Photo by Lei Ceyuan

In the highway tunnel 28 kilometers away from Yesanpo, all the lights have been turned off, which means the power system has been paralyzed from here.

When entering Laishui County and getting off the highway, a group of villagers were passing baskets of vegetables and mineral water transported from trucks on the roadside. "It has been 4 days since the flood, and we have finally received supplies." According to the villagers, these foods are raised by everyone and collectively purchased under the name of the village committee. Some villagers also bought power banks and toilet paper from outside. They said that more than 700 people in the village are now trapped and their daily necessities are in urgent need.

"A few days ago, the road was washed away by water and we couldn't get out. Today, the road was just opened and the phone signal was restored, but we couldn't leave either. We need to first rescue the remaining furniture at home that hasn't been washed away by the water," said a villager.

The homes of these villagers are located next to the highway and belong to low-lying areas. Most villagers make a living through tourism and operate homestays at Qingquan Mountain Resort. Many of their homestays have been washed away, resulting in losses of millions of yuan.

"When the water was at its deepest, it was already around my neck. I ran to the second floor and when the water receded a bit, I was rescued by the village committee with a ladder," recalled villager Zhao Zhuming. He is shirtless and wearing the boxed shorts given by the villagers. "When I ran out, I was only wearing one pair of underwear and there was nothing left..." These days, he has been trying to rescue some wearable clothes from his house, but they have all been scrapped because they have been soaked in mud for too long. During the rainstorm, Zhao Mingzhu's mobile phone was also washed away, and now he can't contact his relatives and friends outside.

As of the evening of August 4th, the bridge from Xinggezhuang Village to Bailixia Scenic Area has not yet been completed. Photo by Lei Ceyuan

Starting from August 3rd, Shangguan Ningxin has been continuously transporting supplies to villages around Yesanpo, which are severely affected by the disaster. However, her and her friend's car were unable to reach the village, and the flood destroyed many roads leading to the village. The villagers carried ropes, tied boxes of mineral water and instant noodles behind their backs, and then hiked more than ten or even dozens of miles to carry them back to the village. Shangguan Ningxin observed that many villagers who transport supplies back and forth are elderly people.

One day, on the way to deliver supplies, Shangguan Ningxin and her friends had three cars damaged by falling rocks on the road. She told reporters that the villagers have cleared some of the falling rocks, but there are still many on the road.

On August 5th, Shangguan Ningxin once again went to the villages around Yesanpo to transport supplies, and the supplies can now be delivered to the entrances of some villages. Until now, these villages are still facing difficulties in power outages. She plans to buy several generators and send them over in the next two days.