The tale of Huanggualu, a poverty-free village set in the clouds
13 Feb 2023 08:45am
Image for illustrative purposes only - FILE PIX
With a population of only 120, Huanggualu is located in Malipo, Tianbo, in the interior of Yunnan province in the southern part of the republic bordering Vietnam and Myanmar.
The writer had the opportunity to visit this fascinating village last year when she participated in the China-Asia Pacific Press Centre 2022 programme from June to November on the invitation of the China Public Diplomacy Association.
To get to Huanggualu, the writer and 20 other journalists who participated in the programme took a seven-hour flight from Beijing to Kunming before going on a four-hour journey by road to Wenshan - which is the nearest town to the village - located in the autonomous prefecture of Wenshan Zhuang and Miao.
From Wenshan, it was a one-hour trip to their destination tucked away in the highlands. Luckily, the sweeping panoramic views of their surroundings distracted the visitors from the hazardous nature of the narrow and winding road up the hill where even the slightest misjudgement by the driver can cause the vehicle to tumble down a deep ravine.
The danger aside, Huanggualu was indeed a "hidden paradise”, as described by Shen Xiaochang who was there to assist the programme participants.
"Here you can hear and see for yourselves some of the thousands of success stories arising from the poverty eradication programme implemented (nationwide) by the government,” he told the journalists.
Huanggualu is populated by the Yao ethnic group, which is one of the 56 ethnic communities in China recognised by the government.
The 30 families residing there earn a living by cultivating tomatoes and Lanxangia tsaoko, a type of ginger commonly used by the local community for cooking and medicinal purposes. Those two are the "golden crops” that freed the locals from the clutches of poverty.
"I can earn about RMB150,000 (RM94,000) a year from the sale of my tomatoes. I’m now rich,” said village headman Zhao You Rong who owns a 4.5-hectare plot of land.
According to a Chinese proverb, building a road is the "first step to becoming rich”. This is certainly true in Huanggualu’s case.
The road connecting the village to the nearest town Wenshan used to be muddy and slushy and it would take the villagers eight hours to reach the town.
In 2014, however, the government built a new road despite the challenges posed by the hilly terrain, following which travel time was slashed to about one-and-a-half hours, said Chinese Communist Party committee secretary Zhang Hun.
He said the better infrastructure made it easier for the villagers to travel to the town to sell their produce.
Not only that, they also have access to 5G Internet services, thus exposing them to the lucrative online market. In fact, currently, 40 percent of their produce is marketed online with a delivery company collecting their products and sending them to their customers.
"Many government officials have also visited the village and provided guidance and training to the people there to sell their agricultural products online using their smartphones,” added Zhang.
Online sales have helped to boost the incomes of the farmers in Huanggualu because of the higher selling prices. Their agricultural produce is sold at between RMB60 and RMB80 on online platforms compared to about RMB5 (about RM3) in conventional markets.
After taking their produce online, the villagers saw their incomes escalating to RMB120,000 (about RM75,000) a year. Earlier, they used to make only about RMB30,000 to RMB40,000 (RM19,000 to RM25,000) a year.
"There are several indicators to determine whether the rural villagers have emerged from hardcore poverty. Among them are they no longer worry about having access to food, medicine, education and housing, and their per capita income has exceeded RMB4,000 per person,” explained Zhang.
On Nov 14, 2020, Yunnan announced that it has eradicated absolute poverty after the nine remaining poor districts in the province were removed from the country’s list of hardcore poor districts.
Local Chinese media had reported that since 2012, the government has succeeded in removing the hardcore poor status of 8,502 villages - with a total population of 8.8 million comprising various ethnic groups - in 88 districts in Yunnan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying through various measures taken by the government, all 98.99 million people living under the poverty line in the rural parts of China were lifted out of poverty between 2012 and 2020.
This indicated that China had achieved Sustainable Development Goal 1 (‘No Poverty’) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. - BERNAMA
