Starting the "Ten Million Project" for Youth Integration into Rural Construction for Twenty Years, the Youth Flavor of Villages Becomes More and More Strong | Young People | Youth

In Xiaopu Town, Changxing County, Huzhou City, on the southwest bank of the Taihu Lake Lake, there is a village named after "Huaxi". The arrival of young people has brought back the limpidity of the former "Jiangnan Water Town".

In 2016, Wang Yunfeng returned to Huaxi Village after graduating from university and became a village cadre. He still remembers the scene when he first returned to the village: most of the water in the village had turned green and smelly, and there were still dead fish and rotten shrimp floating on the water surface... Years of development and construction have caused serious damage to the water environment of Huaxi Village, with more than 200 rivers classified as inferior Class V water bodies.

Later, hundreds of rivers and ponds in the village were treated, and the ecological environment and appearance of the village completely changed. Now, the clean Huaxi Village has returned.

From then on, the fate of tens of thousands of villages was rewritten, and a rural painting of "people and environment sharing beauty, mountains and rivers and economy sharing prosperity" slowly unfolded on the vast land of the Yangtze River.

Since the implementation of the "Ten Million Project" for 20 years, the village environment has significantly improved, and more and more young people are returning to the countryside. Wang Yunfeng's experience is just a microcosm of the integration of young people into rural construction and development. The participation of these young people has made the "Ten Million Project" more and more youthful.

Returning to the countryside

Xiantan Village is located in Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. It is a famous homestay gathering place in the Moganshan area, but few people would think that it was once a "hollow village".

Shen Jiangrong, Secretary of the Party Branch of Xiantan Village, said that in the 1980s and 1990s, there were no roads and garbage everywhere here. Villagers could only rely on rough processing of bamboo shoots and animal husbandry for a living, and their income was very meager. Most of the young people in the village left the village and went out to work. Over time, Xiantan Village gradually became hollow, with fewer and fewer young people in the village.

Not only in Xiantan, the phenomenon of "hollowing out" was once widespread in rural Zhejiang, and a large part of the reason for young people leaving was due to the destruction of the rural environment.

The change occurred after the implementation of the "Ten Million Project". In the early stage of the implementation of the "Ten Million Project", the focus of the work is to promote a cleaner and more orderly rural area. During this period, by promoting measures such as road hardening, garbage collection, and toilet renovation within the village, the environment of villages in Zhejiang Province has greatly improved, laying a foundation for the development of rural areas in the future. At the same time, with the promotion of the comprehensive policy reform of "hollow villages", the channels for increasing farmers' income have been expanded, and new rural business models are also attracting young people to return.

After the launch of the "Ten Million Project" in 2003, Xiantan Village carried out renovation of the village's residential environment, including roads and toilets, and closed down the bamboo shoot factory and bamboo drawing factory. The environment has improved, coupled with the advantageous location near Shanghai and Hangzhou, many people have come to Xiantan to invest in opening homestays, many of whom are young people who left the village earlier.

"Seeing that the environment in my hometown has become so good, I decided to come back," Xu Langyue, a villager from Xiantan Village, told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network. At the end of 2019, he returned to the village and opened a hot spring homestay with his brother.

In Zhejiang, many villages have introduced favorable policies to attract young people, and Yu Village in Anji County, Huzhou City is a typical example.

In July 2022, Yucun launched the "Global Partner" program and collaborated with 17 administrative villages in three surrounding townships to introduce talents and capital, establish a 100 million yuan "Yucun Industry Fund", and coordinate the development of the "Yucun Scenic Area".

"How could a small mountain village launch a 'Global Partner' recruitment order?" In 2022, Chen Zhe, a young man from Anji who has been working in Shanghai for many years, came to Yucun with this curiosity. Chen Zhe was greatly impressed by the appearance of Yucun, where a group of young people are starting businesses, conducting investments, researching and innovating, or participating in service activities. After careful consideration, Chen Zhe and his friends settled in Yucun with the "Pioneering Rural Chinese Mancha Coffee Project" and became the first batch of Yucun's "global partners".

In this year, more than 50 "global partner" projects settled in Yucun, and thousands of college students came to work and live in Yucun and surrounding villages. Yucun has welcomed more and more "new villagers", becoming a paradise for young people's work and life.

Youth in need of rural areas

Yucun once developed a mine, but when Chen Zhe came to Yucun, he found that there were no mines or pits here. Instead, there were green mountains and clear waters, and a full sense of happiness. "Once I passed by a small stream after work at night, surrounded by fireflies, like a concert." Chen Zhe felt that his happiness index in living in Yucun was getting higher and higher.

In Yucun, Chen Zhe felt the vitality that modern rural areas give to young people. "A large number of young people and various forms of business are gathered here. After the project is implemented, everyone actively responds to the village collective's common prosperity model and hopes to become a model student of the 'Two Mountains' theory, exporting more experience."

"In the city, I compete with others in terms of location, mode, and cost." Chen Zhe said that if we want to use traditional Chinese animation to empower a region, rural areas have cheaper operating costs and greater room for development. At the same time, rural areas have a strong tolerance for new formats. "Therefore, in this era, young people need rural areas."

Rural areas provide more space for young people to work with ideals and emotions. Since the implementation of the "Ten Million Project", Zhejiang Province has actively promoted the implementation of the "Two Entries and Two Returns" action, strengthened policy support in implementing tax and fee reductions, land use support, social security, and other aspects, and attracted about 300000 talents from Xinxiang. The effective flow of urban and rural factors has further accelerated.

After graduating from college in 2014, Ai Chen returned to her hometown in Anji and accidentally discovered her grandmother's hand sewn thousand layer sole cloth shoes. "The shoes are very simple, but unfortunately the craftsmanship is about to be lost." After several thoughts, Ai Chen decided to take over the old craftsmanship from her grandmother and embark on the entrepreneurial journey of fancy handmade cloth shoes. "I want to pass on this traditional craftsmanship.".

Entrepreneurship is not always smooth sailing, and Ai Chen also encountered many difficulties in the early stages, "when sales were at their worst, a pair of shoes couldn't be sold.". But Aichen did not give up on this. Instead, he integrated fashionable elements while retaining his old craftsmanship, and innovated Chinese clothing to create a trendy collection... After several years of accumulation, sales finally saw a significant increase.

When it comes to the benefits of entrepreneurship, Aichen believes that it cannot be separated from the empowerment of rural areas and the assistance of e-commerce live streaming. In the 20 years since the implementation of the "Ten Million Project", Zhejiang Province has cultivated a total of 1171 e-commerce demonstration villages, 1763 rural e-commerce demonstration sites, 2643 e-commerce professional villages, and 367 e-commerce towns through the implementation of the "E-commerce to Promote Agriculture" action. The online retail sales of agricultural products have exceeded 130 billion yuan, accounting for 42.1% of agricultural product sales. Rural e-commerce has become an important growth point for rural economic development.

In 2020, Ai Chen moved his studio to Xiaoyi Banri Village located in Hengshanwu Village, Anji, and established a brand to test the waters of e-commerce live streaming. Hengshanwu Village has vigorously developed the cultural and tourism industry, achieving the transformation from traditional agricultural villages to 3A level scenic villages, creating a small addiction and half day village cluster for villagers, and achieving the transformation from a "hollow village" to a "internet famous village".

The internet celebrity attribute of Xiaoyi Banri Village has laid a traffic foundation for Ai Chen's live broadcast. "There are many handicraft studios gathered in the village, which provides us with a good original atmosphere." Ai Chen said that in the peaceful atmosphere of the countryside, everyone can better carry out original designs.

Nowadays, the number of fans on Ai Chen's live streaming account exceeds 120000, and the annual revenue has reached tens of millions of yuan. "Most of the revenue comes from online sales channels," said Ai Chen.

Youth feedback to rural areas

Rural areas provide greater possibilities and more opportunities for the development of youth. On the contrary, young people returning to the village also brings a younger mindset and strength, which feeds back to the countryside.

Zhang Lingfang's hometown is Potang Village, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. At the beginning of this year, at the age of 30, she quit her job in the city and returned to the village to help her parents take care of the farm they had been guarding for half a lifetime. During this process, she actively explored new farm operation models.

After returning to the village, Zhang Lingfang registered an account for her farm on various short video platforms. At the same time, Zhang Lingfang also innovated her sales model and launched a fruit picking experience, saving some labor costs. "This year's green plums are all sold online. The fruit picking experience on the farm has also become popular online. When cherries are ripe, many people come to pick them during holidays." Zhang Lingfang said.

Nowadays, promoting and operating one's own brand through the internet has become a proficient skill for merchants in Potang Village. The return of young people to the village for development has also driven the employment of local people.

At the beginning of her entrepreneurship, Ai Chen's handmade cloth shoe team only had 10 people, all of whom were elderly people from her hometown village. Ai Chen said, "On the one hand, we need to inherit this old craftsmanship, and on the other hand, we also want these left behind elderly people to continue to play to their strengths." Now, the number of Ai Chen's team has reached 250 people. Some people can earn over 3000 yuan a month, and a group of elderly people in the village have followed Ai Chen to achieve "elderly re employment", and their families have also achieved income growth.

The high-quality development of agriculture is an important part of the construction of beautiful rural areas. In Zhejiang, there are also many young people returning to rural areas with new agricultural technologies to empower the development and construction of rural areas.

In 2019, Shu Hualun, who had previously operated foreign trade in Africa, returned to China and became a new farmer. He founded a farm in Xueshuigang Village, Haiyan County, Jiaxing City. Yellow skinned watermelons, raw corn... Shuhualun's farm has achieved real-time monitoring, management, and operation through IoT devices, containing many "magical" fruits and vegetables.

As a director of the Zhejiang Rural Youth Wealth Leaders Association, Shu Hualun has also recruited more than 40 farmers to work in the company through the "company+base+farmers" model. At the same time, by exporting technology, providing platforms, and assisting sales, more than 10 farmers in the surrounding area have been driven to develop together, allowing them to make money at their doorstep.

The countryside where young people go is the one with the ability to produce blood. In recent years, Zhejiang Province has actively explored new paths for young talents to return to rural areas and focused on building a new environment for the growth of rural talents. In 2021, Zhejiang launched the "100000 Agricultural Maker Cultivation Project". In 2022, Zhejiang launched the theme practice activity of "Five Paths of Talent Promotion, Revitalization, and Common Prosperity" in industry, planning, technology, digital, and culture throughout the province. At the same time, Zhejiang Province has cultivated and gathered a large number of talents to promote rural revitalization through activities such as training practical talents and high-quality farmers in rural areas, and sending famous teachers to the countryside for training in a hundred people and a thousand sessions. As of now, Zhejiang Province has trained 112500 high-quality farmers and practical talents in rural areas, and more than 47000 university graduates have joined the agricultural maker team.

Returning, rushing, and departing... In "Zhejiang", the young people have a diverse and colorful style, and the story of youth empowering rural development continues. Nowadays, as we enter a new era, the "Ten Million Project" is still being continuously promoted. It is worth looking forward to young people's answers on how to move towards common prosperity in countless beautiful rural areas.

China Youth Daily/China Youth Network Intern Journalist Jia Jiye Journalist Jiang Yutong Wang Lin