Guojiagou, Jizhou, Tianjin: Beautiful Countryside "Butterfly Transformation Record" Farmyard | Guojiagou Village | Butterfly Transformation

Driving all the way north from the center of Tianjin, 150 kilometers later, follow the mountain road in the latter half of Maying Road. At every turn, whether fast or slow, you can enjoy the beautiful scenery of Guojiagou Village from different angles: the green corridor with vines winding around is like jade, the colorful flowers competing for beauty are like oil paintings, the houses in the mountains and rivers are scattered high and low, and the birds chirping and insects chirping in the trees are endless

Under the sunshine, the "Rainbow Flower Sea" in Guojiagou Village is picturesque against the blue sky and white clouds. Photo by Sun Yifei, a journalist from People's Daily Online

Five steps, one scenery, ten steps, one painting, this is the beauty of Guojiagou Village. Guojiagou Village, located in Xiaying Town, Jizhou District, is known as the "water town of Jibei" and the "city that never sleeps in the mountains". It is a well-known resort in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region. From 2013 to 2021, Guojiagou Village has been awarded honors by relevant national departments such as Beautiful Countryside, China Habitat Environment Model Award, China's Most Beautiful Leisure Village, China's Most Livable Village, National Key Village for Rural Tourism, and National Forest Village. At the end of 2022, Guojiagou Scenic Area was officially rated as a national 4A level tourist attraction, which is also the first rural level national 4A level scenic spot in Tianjin.

The title of "China's Most Beautiful Leisure Village" is the pride of every villager in Guojiagou Village. Photo by Sun Yifei, a journalist from People's Daily Online

Who would have thought that this was once a poverty-stricken village with an average annual income of less than 1000 yuan per person. Poverty leads to change. With the help of the cultural and tourism industry, Guojiagou Village has broken through the waves and completed a magnificent transformation.

Previously, the per capita annual income was less than 1000 yuan

If one has never understood the history of Guojiagou Village, many people would mistakenly believe that the beauty of this small village comes from the extraordinary craftsmanship of nature.

In the past, Guojiagou Village, with only over 50 households and 150 people, was a small mountain village with poor transportation. Due to the fact that Guojiagou Village is located in the northern mountainous area of Jizhou District, the cultivated land area is scattered, and the per capita cultivated land area is less than 1 mu.

"Our land is all on the mountains, and we can only grow some walnuts and chestnuts. In autumn, we pick them and sell them. At that time, the village looked gray and bare. Most of the time, we went out to work, and when we heard that we were from Guojiagou, everyone laughed." Recalling the scene of Guojiagou Village more than a decade ago, villager Zhang Lingfeng shook his head.

In the past, Hu Jinling, the Party branch secretary and village committee director of Guojiagou Village, vividly remembered the poverty: girls from other villages did not want to marry into Guojiagou, and they relied on borrowing money for weddings, funerals, and weddings. "The per capita annual income is less than 1000 yuan, it's too poor!"

Farmhouse is moving forward through exploration

The intentional or unintentional laughter of outsiders deeply pierced the hearts of the villagers in Guojiagou Village. "This situation must be changed!" Hu Jinling, the Secretary of the Party Branch and Director of the Village Committee of Guojiagou Village, made up his mind to give the village a new look. "In the future, it will be Guojiagou again, and others will envy him."

That was in 1999, when Hu Jinling, who was working in another city, was recalled by Guojiagou Village and appointed as the director of the village committee. How to make the village beautiful and the villagers rich? This question hovers in Hu Jinling's mind every day. Unable to find his way of thinking, he wandered around the village one after another.

Guojiagou Village has a unique advantage, with two natural scenic spots to the east, Li Mu Tai and to the west, Jiu Shan Shan Shan. Not only Guojiagou Village, but also the entire Xiaying Town is full of scenery. It borders Xinglong in Hebei to the north and Pinggu in Beijing to the west. Here, there is the Huangyaguan Great Wall guarded by the famous general Qi Jiguang, as well as a national nature reserve in the upper and middle Proterozoic realms.

After several rounds of investigation and discussion, tourism has become a new development positioning for Guojiagou by Hu Jinling and village officials.

Do as you please, using the government's development policy support subsidies and the funds raised by the village, Guojiagou Village will build mountain roads and plant fruit trees. Hu Jin led the village cadres to a nearby tourist village for inspection and study, and had a clearer plan for running a farmhouse.

However, Hu Jinling did not expect this idea to be rejected by the villagers. "No one has done it before, how could it be successful?" "Investing so much money, what should we do if we lose?" Villagers, you speak with each other's concerns.

Especially the phrase "why don't you do it yourself" suddenly penetrated into Hu Jinling's heart. After discussing with his family, he decided to set a demonstration for the villagers. Hu Jinling built a public restroom in his yard, painted the house, and set up a farmyard in his own home.

At that time, Zhang Jinbo, the deputy secretary of the village party branch, was Hu Jinling's most staunch supporter. He believed that taking the path of a farmhouse could change the situation in the village, and he also took out a few of his own houses to build a farmhouse. So, the first batch of farmhouses in Guojiagou Village opened five.

In 2006, Zhang Jinbo's profit from opening a farmhouse reached over 30000 yuan. "Previously, the family's annual income was only a few thousand yuan, and the income from opening a farmhouse was 30000 yuan, which was already very high." Hu Jinling knew that the villagers were all watching the results of their efforts to establish a farmhouse, and they were also increasingly considering it. In 2011, the number of farmhouses in Guojiagou Village increased to 11, and the village gradually gained fame in the tourism industry of Jizhou District.

During these 12 years, the farmhouse in Guojiagou Village has been exploring and moving forward.

Empowering Rural Revitalization with Culture and Tourism: A New Journey

In 2012, a better opportunity came - Jizhou District launched the construction of high-quality rural tourism villages, with the first batch of five villages targeting Xiaying Town, and Guojiagou Village ranking first.

Guojiagou Village seized this rare opportunity and positioned itself as the "water town tourism destination with the most distinctive characteristics of northern Chinese residential areas in the Beijing Tianjin region". It will not carry out large-scale demolition and construction, but will transform and improve the existing villages, residential buildings, environment, and landscape. "We renovate residential buildings, roads, alleys and streets, build new tourism reception facilities, demonstration houses, and resettlement houses, create water system landscapes and scenic spots, carry out pipeline installation and transformer capacity expansion, construct sewage treatment projects, and comprehensively greening the village," said Hu Jinling.

"All standards have unified regulations, including the area, hardware facilities, and catering standards of the farmyard, which are clearly defined according to different star ratings. All towels, sheets, and other supplies in the farmyard are cleaned uniformly, and the waiters are trained uniformly. All farmyards have unified standards." Hu Jinling introduced that tourism drives rural changes, but some tourist areas have chaotic management and may even deceive customers. In order to prevent this situation, Guojiagou has accelerated standardized management and established a joint business model of unified marketing and promotion, unified service quality, unified procurement expenses, unified distribution of customer sources, and unified fee settlement.

At present, there are 46 farmhouses in Guojiagou Village, accounting for over 90% of the entire village.

The achievement in front of us is the result of continuous rural governance. "Under the correct leadership of the district, town party committee, and government, Guojiagou Village has focused on strengthening the construction of rural public services, and has accumulated some experience and practices in infrastructure construction, improvement of living environment, as well as rural education, medical and health, cultural and sports, elderly care and childcare, special group care and protection, and social security." Hu Jinling said.

In the northernmost part of Guojiagou Village, there is a reservoir. Standing on the dam and looking down, the deep blue water of the reservoir is crystal clear. On the dam of the reservoir, the words "green mountains and clear waters are like mountains of gold and silver" pieced together with lawns are particularly eye-catching.

"We are practitioners and beneficiaries of the concept of 'green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as gold and silver'. We will continue to adhere to the concept of green development, renovate and improve some farmhouses, and create night light show projects." Hu Jinling, who has been the village branch secretary for 23 years, has a profound idea. "As a professional tourism village, the cultural atmosphere of the countryside is an important foundation for industrial development. This year, we plan to reorganize and improve the village history and village chronicles, publish a book, explore the roots of Guojiagou Village, tell the story of Guojiagou Village well, establish the villagers' high cultural confidence, and enhance rural civilization and soft power."