Decoding the "Internet famous Village" in Guanzhong and How to Become "Everlasting Red" | High Quality Development Research Tour · Shaanxi Station, Night Talk of Yuanjia Village

On September 9th, the "High Quality Development Research Tour" themed interview activity arrived at Yuanjia Village, Liquan County, Xianyang, Shaanxi. As soon as I got off the car, I was surrounded by the bustling atmosphere rushing towards me.

At the entrance of Yuanjia Village. Photo by Yuan Taoxiong

At night, Yuanjia Village is not sleeping. Singing shadow puppetry on stage, sipping an old bowl of tea with a fragrant tongue; The folk songs in the bar are leisurely, and three or five friends clink glasses and boast; When you go to the snack street, you will find Liangpi, fried noodles, mutton blood in powder soup, osmanthus fermented glutinous rice... all kinds of authentic Guanzhong snacks. I advise you to come with an empty stomach.

Under the night, the bar street in Yuanjia Village is very lively. Photo by Yuan Taoxiong

Finding a clean place, the reporter met three villagers from Yuanjia Village and chatted with them. That's just one topic: Why has Yuanjia Village, which has been developing rural tourism since 2007, been so popular until now?

The Management of a Bowl of Fermented Glutinous Rice

Villager Yuan Lei started with a bowl of fermented mash. Laozao, almost every family in Guanzhong knows how to make it. At first, selling fermented glutinous rice was done in the front and back yards of the store. The villagers showed the production process to tourists, not only to showcase the customs of Guanzhong, but also to reassure them about food safety.

A shop is making handmade Fried Dough Twists. Photo by Yuan Taoxiong

Even small fermented grains make money, and many villagers want to make fermented grains. If they all go to work, they won't be able to make any money. Yuanjia Village stipulates that all kinds of snacks must be operated differently, and only through differentiated competition can they coexist and win. The village established a "mash cooperative", with Yuan Lei serving as the president of the cooperative.

"There are three ways to make mash - water, koji, and glutinous rice. The cooperative controls the quality of ingredients from the source. After expanding its scale, it is now a 'front store and back factory', and we have established mash workshops to standardize mash production. We also constantly adjust the process, such as setting different temperatures during summer and winter to make the mash more delicious," said Yuan Lei.

Tourists on the snack street in the morning. Photo by Yuan Taoxiong

There are 8 professional cooperatives in Yuanjia Village, including rapeseed oil, tofu, flour and yogurt. These cooperatives can not only sell products to tourists, but also directly supply them to snack merchants. Yuanjia Village implements the "four unifications" management of procurement, pricing, settlement, and quality supervision for all stores.

All food in the snack street is currently available for sale not overnight; A shop owner hung up a plaque and swore, "If sheep blood is adulterated, I am willing to harm my descendants."; Each store clearly states the raw material supply point and provides the material supplier's phone number for tourists to check. Yuan Lei said, "Who dares to 'cheat'? The villagers themselves won't agree for now. Let's protect our reputation together."

The "Wealthy Classic" of a "Hollow Village"

Yuanjia Village is far from big cities and has inconvenient transportation. Why should we develop tourism?

After the reform and opening up, Yuanjia Village has developed many village run enterprises: cement factories, printing factories, sponge factories... there are really many. But with the increasing efforts to protect the ecological environment, the competitiveness of the product market has declined, village run enterprises have gradually closed down, and villagers are eager to go out to work. By 2007, Yuanjia Village had become a "hollow village".

"The banner of Yuanjia Village cannot be toppled! This was the idea of our newly appointed village party branch secretary Guo Zhanwu at that time," said Guo Hongjiang, deputy director of the Yuanjia Village Committee. Treating the traditional customs that are most familiar to rural people as tourism resources, such as specialty snacks, traditional clothing, folk intangible cultural heritage, local opera, traditional architectural style... showcasing the local life of villagers and relying on folk customs to create rural tourism with the lowest cost. The Party branch secretary Guo Zhanwu and village cadres proposed the "medicine" for developing tourism, but experts who conducted research poured cold water on it. "Urban talents are interested in rural tourism, and if we want to attract tourists to big cities like Xi'an, we will have to wait another ten years."

Ten years? How can you afford to wait! "South wall, let's hit it first." After selling the old equipment of the closed cement factory, Yuanjia Village built a 50 meter long tourist street in 2007. From the perspective of the masses, party members should take the lead, and the tourism industry in Yuanjia Village has begun to shake off.

With the characteristics of folk customs and strict management, more and more people are coming to Yuanjia Village for tourism in the surrounding area. Yuanjia Village has become a magnet, attracting not only tourists but also villagers from neighboring villages. "With the popularity of tourism, more service personnel are needed, accompanied by an increasing consumption of food raw materials. We have started building factories to do food processing industry, and the agricultural products grown by neighboring villagers have also found a market in Yuanjia Village. With a large demand from Yuanjia Village, farmers do not have to directly face the large market," said Guo Hongjiang. The path of integrating primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in Yuanjia Village is to promote primary and secondary industries through the integration of tertiary and tertiary industries.

The villagers are performing the stringed panel tune. Photo by Yuan Taoxiong

Not limited to local development, in 2015, Yuanjia Village, with 8 years of experience in rural tourism industry development, finally turned its attention to the outside of the village, entering the city and leaving the province. The "Yuanjia Village" brand has settled in the high-end commercial complex in Xi'an, and in the urban consumption scene, "Guanzhong Traditional Snacks+High Quality Food" has created a space. Each city store is a farmer's cooperative, where capable farmers bring people out, while incapable farmers bring money out. Villagers directly or indirectly follow Yuanjia Village to make profits. The first store in Xi'an, invested by villagers with 6 million yuan, recovered all costs in just 9 months.

In addition to rural tourism, we also export models. "Over the years, Yuanjia Village has accumulated experience and talents in the development of rural tourism industry. By integrating talents and market resources, we have created folk tourism experience areas in Qinghai, Henan, Shanxi, Hainan and other places, allowing the 'Yuanjia Village' brand to sail out of the province and reach the whole country." Guo Hongjiang said.

A proposal letter for common development

"I would rather earn 500000 yuan per year for 10 years than earn 3 million yuan per year," said the people of Yuanjia Village. In Guo Hongjiang's eyes, Yuanjia Village refuses to be a "nouveau riche" when it comes to calculating big accounts, long-term accounts, and making money.

High quality development not only depends on how much is earned, but also on how it is divided.

Now, everyone in Yuanjia Village is a shareholder, and each household has dividends. Cross shareholding and mixed shareholding are established based on the principle of "mutual shareholder and benefit sharing". Tourism companies, shops, and farmhouses can invest in capital and technology, and merchants can "have me in you, I have you in me", supervise each other, and develop together.

When investing, Yuanjia Village also has a principle - "invest less first, invest as much as possible, take care of small households, and limit large households" to balance investors with different incomes. Guo Hongjiang pointed to the wall behind him and said, "There is a villager next door who refused to participate in the first investment because there was not enough money. In order to prevent the villagers from falling behind, Secretary Guo Zhanwu lent him 20000 yuan to invest. The real manifestation of common prosperity lies in the mediation and restriction of shares. We restrict villagers with good economic foundations, and encourage villagers with poor economic foundations. To prevent profit seeking capital from dissolving common prosperity, Yuanjia Village has come up with many strategies.".

A cultural and creative shop in Yuanjia Village. Photo by Yuan Taoxiong

Common development not only advocates for the common prosperity of villagers, but also advocates opening the "village door" to welcome partners. The village has also created a cultural entrepreneurship platform to attract young and capable people to return to their hometowns for investment, opening stores, and doing business. New formats such as bars, concerts, and boutique homestays are integrating and coexisting in this tourism village based on local customs.

At the end of last year, the Rural Revitalization Practice Base of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University was established in Yuanjia Village, and the teachers and students of Tsinghua University became observers, recorders, and participants in the rural revitalization of Yuanjia Village. Zhao Pingguang, a doctoral student from Tsinghua University, has become the "new villager" of Yuanjia Village. He said, "We have come to Yuanjia Village to take root and practice, combine rural characteristic cuisine, festival customs, and cultural history to create rural cultural and creative spaces, empower rural revitalization with culture, and enable young people to make great achievements in the vast countryside."

At present, Yuanjia Village receives an average of 6 million tourists per year, with an annual comprehensive income of over 1 billion yuan and a per capita net income of 150000 yuan for villagers. Guo Hongjiang estimated, "The expected number of tourists this year is at least 8 million or more."

on duty