When learning is in progress, the relationship between General Secretary Xi Jinping and this "Zhejiang East Red Village" is in progress | Villagers | Xi Jinping

Xinhua News Agency reporters Fang Yibo and Jin Jiaxu

Hengkantou Village, located in the revolutionary old area of Simingshan in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, is known as the "Red Village in East Zhejiang" and is also a well-known national civilized village. At the beginning of this century, it was an economically weak village with blocked transportation, dilapidated houses, and relatively low incomes among villagers. What is the reason for the magnificent transformation of Hengkantou Village? The original brand column "Workshop" of Xinhua News Agency's "Learning in Progress" has launched an article to tell you about it.

Hengkantou Village is located in the revolutionary old area of Simingshan in Yuyao, Zhejiang. This was once the location of the anti Japanese base in eastern Zhejiang, known as the "Red Village in eastern Zhejiang".

20 years ago, Hengkantou Village was an economically weak village with blocked transportation, dilapidated houses, and low income. There was not even a decent cement road, and there was no public toilet in the village. The average annual income of the villagers was less than 2700 yuan, and the collective debt of the village was over 200000 yuan. The locals exclaimed, "The horizontal ridge is not visible from the vertical to the horizontal."

The old houses in Hengkantou Village have been transformed into boutique homestays.

On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2003, Xi Jinping, who had just served as secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, made a special trip to Liangzong Town and Hengkantou Village for investigation and research.

At that time, in Zhejiang, the vast rural areas were facing the troubles of growth, and rural construction and social development were significantly lagging behind. The phenomena of "having new houses but no new villages", "modern indoor environment, dirty and messy outdoor environment", "garbage nowhere to go, and sewage flowing everywhere" are very prominent.

"Whether the construction of the old areas can be done well, whether the poverty alleviation and development is effective, and whether the underdeveloped areas can achieve leapfrog development, the key depends on whether the cadres and the masses there have the entrepreneurial spirit of non-dependence and self-reliance, whether they have the spirit of hard work and hard work, and whether they have the pioneering spirit of positive progress and innovation." Xi Jinping sat around with the comrades in the town and village to plan the road of development, and put forward the ardent expectation of building a "model town for a well-off society in an all-round way in the old revolutionary base areas of the country.

Xi Jinping's words ignited the fighting spirit of the villagers. On February 8, 2003, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the two village committees held a meeting to study and report their work plans to Xi Jinping by letter. Soon, Xi Jinping wrote back to them, encouraging them to speed up the development and construction of old areas and get rid of poverty and become well-off as soon as possible.

This is a comparison photo of the toilets in Hengkantou Village before and after renovation.

In June of the same year, under the advocacy and auspices of Xi Jinping, focusing on the improvement of the "three lives" environment of rural production, life, and ecology, Zhejiang Province launched the "Thousand Village Demonstration and Ten Thousand Village Renovation" project: It took 5 years, Select about 10000 administrative villages from the province for comprehensive renovation, and build about 1000 of them into comprehensive well-off demonstration villages.

Riding on the momentum of the "Ten Million Project", Hengkantou Village has adjusted its industrial structure, developed red tourism, utilized green resources, and strengthened its characteristic agriculture. It has been built into a well-known well-off and civilized village, and the lives of its villagers have continued to improve. Fifteen years have passed, and this once unknown small mountain village has become a classic red tourism scenic spot in China. The annual disposable income of the villagers is over 27000 yuan, which is 10 times that of 2003.

In February 2018, all Party members in Hengkantou Village wrote to General Secretary Xi Jinping to report on the development of the village.

"I'm glad to hear from you. I remember when I came to your village 15 years ago, and I 've been thinking about the folks." In his reply, General Secretary Xi Jinping encouraged everyone to inherit the red gene, give full play to the role of the party organization as a battle fortress and the vanguard and exemplary role of party members, and work hard with the villagers to make persistent efforts, work hard, combine their own reality, give full play to their own advantages, and strive to build a prosperous, civilized, and livable beautiful countryside, making the lives of the villagers more and more prosperous.

Aerial view of Hengkantou Village, Yuyao City, Ningbo, photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Zongzhi

For a long time, we have made solid progress, one thing after another, year after year. The "ten million project", a project of enriching the people personally planned, deployed and promoted by general secretary Xi Jinping, has profoundly changed the rural appearance of Zhejiang and created thousands of beautiful villages. It has been awarded the highest environmental protection honor-"Earth Guardian Award" by the United Nations Environment Programme ".

Nowadays, the practice of the "Ten Million Project" in Zhejiang continues to deepen, providing rich experience and inspiration for implementing rural revitalization and building a beautiful China. As of the end of 2022, more than 90% of villages in Zhejiang Province have met the standards for beautiful rural areas in the new era. 70 demonstration counties, 724 demonstration towns, 743 scenic spots, 2170 characteristic boutique villages, and over 3 million beautiful courtyards have been established. The new picture of beautiful countryside in the new era is slowly unfolding.