The undulating Helan Mountain protects Minning Town in its own arms. The wide and tidy streets, sweet tasting wine, and thriving fruits and vegetables showcase a thriving and beautiful life to people.
This is the ecological migration site that he personally proposed for Fujian and Ningxia to jointly build when he was the Deputy Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee in 1997.
27 years ago, a poverty-stricken immigrant village with 8000 people has now developed into a demonstration town for ecological migration with over 60000 people - Minning Town. The per capita disposable income of immigrants in the town has also increased from 500 yuan in 1997 to 16775 yuan in 2022.
Immigration relocation, my heart has become more spacious
Aerial photo of Yuanlong Village. Map provided by Minning Town
After a heavy rain, the asphalt road in front of Tian Chenglin's house in Yuanlong Village, Minning Town is particularly clean.
"If it were in my hometown, I wouldn't even be able to get out of the house in such heavy rain. I couldn't ride my motorcycle halfway up the mountain, so I had to throw it down and go home first. I'll go back and look for it when the rain stops." 75 year old Tian Chenglin walked slowly outside with an umbrella and happily said to the reporter, "Look at the road in the village now, it's flat and wide. Although it's raining heavily, it's very convenient to go anywhere!"
"When it's sunny, you're covered in soil, and when it's rainy, you're covered in mud" is a true portrayal of Tian Chenglin's hometown. Cave adobe, relying on the sky for food, standing on the top of the mountain and looking around, there are not only mountains but also mountains.
On May 30, 2014, Tian Chenglin and his family relocated from Xiaqingshi Village, Kaicheng Town, Yuanzhou District, Guyuan City, 300 kilometers away, to Yuanlong Village. Nowadays, the Tian Chenglin family has bright and clean small courtyard windows, and several pots of green plants in front of the house are lush and green. "Ten years ago, I couldn't even imagine having such a good day like this."
Speaking of the changes over the years, "convenience" is Tian Chenglin's most intuitive feeling.
"In the past, there was a mountain road 10 kilometers away from the nearest village clinic in our hometown, and it took us half an hour to ride a motorcycle. It was basically a minor illness that we had to carry, and when we became seriously ill, we had to remember to go to the hospital. At that time, not only did we spend money, but we also suffered." Speaking of his previous experience of seeking medical treatment, Tian Chenglin still felt bitter.
"It's so easy now. You can walk to the village clinic in less than 5 minutes. Sitting in the clinic, the examination here will be done for you, and there will be experts online to see you. You don't have to run and it's very cheap." In the third year of moving to Yuanlong Village, Tian Chenglin's wife had a brain tumor and the surgery was done at the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University. As a registered impoverished household, the surgery fee of 140000 yuan was completely waived. In 2016, I also had a heart bypass surgery and didn't spend much money after reimbursement.
At the end of 2021, the Yuanlong Village Health Service Station invested 500000 yuan to build an intelligent cloud consultation room, allowing the public to enjoy high-quality medical and health services such as intelligent physical examinations, intelligent rehabilitation, and intelligent health management at their doorstep. The station also focused on "one elderly, one child, and one young", empowering grassroots health services with professional, humanized, and intelligent software and hardware equipment.
The convenience of Yuanlong Village is not only reflected in seeking medical treatment.
Recalling the hardships of studying in the past, the party branch secretary of Yuanlong Village, Tu Chengfu, who grew up in Yuanlong Village, was also deeply moved: although his home is only a few kilometers away from school, the mountain road is rugged and bumpy, and traveling in rainy and snowy weather is even more difficult. He often takes an hour to get to school.
I am very grateful for my father's decision back then. When everyone was still hesitant, he decisively brought our whole family to Minning Town. After arriving in Minning Town, the nearby school and spacious and bright classrooms made this child who came out of the mountain ditch cherish the opportunity to study even more, and many years later, he was admitted to his desired university.
"How many years did it take to have a college student in our hometown before? If a student gets admitted to university, not to mention the whole family, it would be a happy event for the whole village." After graduating from Tuo Chengfu University, he embarked on the path of returning to his hometown to start a business and became a leader in the village's wealth creation. "My child no longer needs to follow the same old path as when I was in school. Now the school is right at our doorstep, and the teaching equipment is as advanced as in the city!" What makes Tuo Chengfu even more proud is that this year, more than 30 college students were admitted to Yuanlong Village, and the highest score was over 600 points.
The production and living conditions of the relocated population continue to improve, not only providing basic infrastructure such as housing, employment, and medical facilities, but also providing protection for the villagers and truly living a good life.
Little grapes, brewing happy days
The wine grapes waiting to be picked at the Lilan Winery. Photo by Wang Yan
At the foot of Helan Mountain, the verdant grape corridor is filled with a rich aroma of wine. Entering the Lilan Winery, clusters of purple grapes are hidden in the lush green branches. The vineyards here adopt the "shallow ditch planting" technology, which not only reduces soil erosion but also becomes the largest flood control project in the eastern foothills of Helan. You can't imagine that the once barren Gobi Desert is now a beautiful oasis new city.
It is not easy to interview Liu Li, the production workshop director of the winery. She is dressed in competent work clothes and speaks fluent Mandarin, explaining to tourists who come to visit the winery. It is hard to imagine that the "expert" in front of her only has a junior high school education.
"When I first moved from my hometown to Yuanlong Village in Minning Town, besides earning 600 kilograms of wheat per acre of land per year, my husband and I mainly relied on odd jobs to support our family's livelihood. One chance visit to the vineyard planting base of Lilan Winery to weed brought about a change in my subsequent life," Liu Li said.
In 2013, with the help of the national poverty alleviation relocation policy, Liu Li and her family of four relocated from Damaigou Village, Wenbao Township, Longde County to Yuanlong Village, Minning Town, Yongning County. Along with Liu Li's family, there were also several pieces of wood that were demolished from the old house in our hometown. "Before moving in, we didn't know anything and thought that if we didn't have a place to live, we would have to build our own house, so we took down the wood from the old house." Rather than just a few highly anticipated pieces of wood, it was more like Liu Li's family's hidden worries and anxieties about the unknown life.
However, unexpectedly, on the first day they moved in, they moved into a brand new brick and tile house with water and electricity. Each family had an independent courtyard, and they could easily meet their old neighbors in the village when they went out. "The government distributed rice and noodles to every household, and we brought our own pots, stoves, and utensils. On the first day we moved in, we ate the hot rice we made at home." Liu Li said, "On the first day we set foot on a foreign land, a life of ambition rose in the smoke of cooking.".
This year is the tenth year for Liu Li's family to relocate to Minning Town. Over the past 10 years, she and her husband have ended their lives of men working outside and women taking care of their children at home. Now, the couple is in charge of production and planting, and their monthly income can add up to tens of thousands of yuan. They have gradually built houses and garages, replaced televisions, refrigerators, and even bought small cars, and their lives are thriving. The few pieces of wood brought from home have also been turned into firewood due to occupying land.
Through work, immigrant women like Liu Li not only improve their quality of life, but also embark on different life paths. However, Liu Li's understanding of the significance of her work goes far beyond this: "Ningxia already has a 'red business card', and now we are creating a 'purple business card'. The happiest thing is to work hard for this business card."
"Next, Minning Town will continue to extend the wine industry chain. Scientific development plans for the wine industry will be formulated, cultural and tourism elements will be integrated into the wine industry, and a number of wine estates and scenic spots with prosperous production and sales and ecological tourism will be built." said Zhou Deqiang, member of the Standing Committee of Yongning County Committee and Secretary of Minning Town Party Committee.
Fujian Ningxia Cooperation, Longer Mountains and Seas
An Xingmin is inspecting the growth of tomatoes in the greenhouse. Photo by Wang Yan
Accompanied by a few gentle breeze in the morning, An Xingmin, a villager from Horticultural Village in Minning Town, came to his greenhouse to check the condition of the tomatoes: the tender buds had broken through the soil and grown happily.
Anxingmin's hometown is located in Xihaigu. In the past, due to water scarcity and poor ecological environment, dryland agriculture has not been harvested for nine out of ten years. Nowadays, the fruit tomatoes grown in Anxingmin's greenhouses are not worried about growth or sales. From breakthroughs in planting technology to the opening of sales channels, the government will solve all problems. "This is something we can't even think about in our hometown of Xiji. Our greenhouse really grows whatever it is," An Xingmin said happily.
Relying on the main industry of facility agriculture, the income of villagers in horticultural villages has been steadily increasing in recent years. "Our village mainly focuses on planting characteristic fruits and vegetables and agricultural products, and currently has considerable economic benefits," said Wang Linlin, director of the Horticultural Village Committee in Minning Town, Yongning County, pointing to the neatly arranged greenhouse in front of us.
"This greenhouse looks very good. How much does it cost to build a greenhouse? Will the villagers feel a lot of pressure?" When asked by a college student who is practicing at the grassroots level, Wang Senlin waved his hand and said, "This greenhouse costs about 300000 yuan, but neither the villagers nor the village have paid for it. It is built with poverty alleviation funds from Fujian Province. Villagers can rent the greenhouse for only 6000 yuan per year."
Over the past 27 years, the development of industrial cooperation has been the foundation of the Fujian Ningxia cooperation. In March of this year, the construction of Minning Industrial Park officially began. In accordance with the goal of building the industrial park into a model of Fujian Ningxia cooperation in the new development stage, Yinchuan City and Yongning County focus on key industries such as deep processing of agricultural products, equipment manufacturing, and new materials, leverage the advantages of the Fujian Ningxia cooperation mechanism, and vigorously attract Fujian and Taiwanese businessmen to invest and develop in the park. Now, on this wasteland located in the southern part of Minning Town, there is a "Minning acceleration".
Zhang Xiaolin, who has been working and living in Ningxia for more than 20 years, is full of expectations for the Minning Industrial Park: "On the one hand, my supply chain enterprise can settle in, mainly engaged in deep processing of agricultural products in Minning Town. On the other hand, I want to prepare a live streaming talent training base to empower the live streaming talent industry chain."
Nowadays, the cooperation between Fujian and Ningxia has expanded from one-way assistance at the beginning to complementary advantages and common development between the two provinces and regions. It has extended from financial, educational, and medical resource assistance to technology research and development, market participation, and industrial integration, forming a comprehensive, multi-level, and wide-ranging deep cooperation.
"The southeast wind blows and the northwest is warm. That year, when you came to our house, you uprooted the poor roots and planted the flowers. It was so beautiful that the desert turned into a sea of flowers..." As the sun set, a beautiful interlude of "Mountain and Sea Love" sang about the happy life of the people in Minning Town and their gratitude to the party.
