Deserted villages in NE China turned into touristy sites

The snow season has arrived at Changbai Mountain on the Chinese-North Korean border recently. With one snowfall after another, 400 tourists from Shanghai flocked to Guangdong village in Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, northeast China's Jilin province.

Since returning to her hometown 12 years ago, Yang Lina has successfully transformed two underdeveloped Korean villages into destinations favored by internet influencers. Moreover, Yang's tourism business has created work opportunities for over 2,000 villagers.

Born in the 1980s, Yang grew up in a mountain village in Antu county, Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture. She spent several years working in Yunnan after graduating from university. Yang was inspired by Yunnan's distinct ethnic minority villages and decided to start her own business in her hometown.

Building Guangdong village into a Korean folk village is the first step in developing rural tourism. Before 2011, Guangdong village was a humble small village where young people were unwilling to stay.

On the other hand, Yang saw great development potential in the village's daily life: vast rice fields, talented Korean aunties who could sing and dance, and a variety of Korean delicacies such as mixed rice, braised chicken, icy cold noodles, and rice cake.

Yang started her business by running Korean homestays. Within three years, she had gone door-to-door with local villagers, asking for property owners' permission to convert deserted schools and civil houses into Korean-style restaurants and homestays. Thanks to her endeavor, over 60 homestays have been built in Guangdong village.

After establishing restaurants and homestays, the next challenge was to attract tourists. Yang conducted extensive research nationwide to learn how to combine regional characteristics with tourism.

She utilized Guangdong village's vast paddy fields to develop a series of cultural and tourism projects, including building viewing platforms, creating large-scale rice paddy art, and operating little trains in the fields.

With the assistance of relevant departments in Jilin province, Guangdong village completed its tourism planning in 2016. Its rural tourism infrastructure, such as a tourist service center and parking lot, was successively constructed. More than 100 travel agencies included Guangdong village in their Changbai Mountain itineraries, signing food service contracts with the village.

Meanwhile, Yang launched an online shopping mall for Guangdong village to enhance the added value of agricultural products. High-quality rice and various Korean delicacies are sold nationwide through E-commerce.

After years of exploration, Yang concluded her entrepreneurial experience as using the tertiary industry to drive the secondary industry and promote the primary industry.

"Rural tourism is a breakthrough," Yang said. "Once tourists are drawn in, they can have a comprehensive experience through dining, lodging, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment. Tourism is thus fused into agriculture, academic activities and homestay service.

With the success of building Guangdong village, Yang set her sights on border village of Naitoushan in Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture.

Although both are Korean villages, Naitoushan village and Guangdong village differ a lot in their geographical location and ecological environment. Yang tailored specific tourism projects for each village.

Only 18 kilometers from the north scenic area of Changbai Mountain, Naitoushan is known as the "Number one village of Changbai Mountain," and the village has unique ice and snow resources. Besides, it possesses a red cultural heritage, serving as the last camp of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

Yang decided to combine red culture with ice and snow resources to transform Naitoushan village into a four-season tourist destination. Moreover, villagers could plant ginseng under the forest to develop an understory economy.

In recent years, Yang and her team have constructed a rural revitalization study base, a hot spring resort hotel, a ginseng planting base, and an understory economy international digital trade industrial park in Naitoushan village, creating a value-added industry chain that benefits all stakeholders.

This winter, the newly built hot spring resort hotel in Naitoushan village is ready to open. Apart from that, the village has launched various ice and snow products. Visitors can have fun in an ice and snow park, go fishing, eat hot pot in country houses, take photos with elks in the snow, enjoy revolutionary history-themed role-playing games, and visit the Naitoushan Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Base Memorial Hall.

The annual number of visitors to Guangdong village and Naitoushan village has increased from 50,000 to 800,000.

Source: China Youth Daily; trans-editing by Guo Yao