Beijing 2022 points the way to prosperity for villagers in Yanqing

Villagers in Houheilongmiao village, once haunted by poverty, have embarked on a path toward prosperity by engaging in a high-end homestay business, an industry that has been thriving in localities situated geographically adjacent to one of the competition venues for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing’s Yanqing district.

(Photo/BTV News)

The village, with its sound ecological environment, started to develop a boutique homestay tourism business in 2015 after Beijing won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, said Du Zaoyin, Party secretary of the village.

Some villagers transferred their unused houses to a villager’s cooperative, which then entrusted a company to rebuild the houses and run them as inns, while others chose to renovate houses by making their own investments, and then similarly entrusted the business to a third-party, Du introduced, explaining how villagers have tapped into the new source of income.

Zhang Haichao had been running a business in downtown Beijing. After learning about the launch of the winter leisure tourism project in Yanqing, however, the man immediately returned to his hometown in Zhangshanying township, Yanqing to establish his own homestay business.

He renovated the houses transferred from his fellow villagers and built 19 modern homestay hotels that could upon completion accommodate a maximum occupancy of 300 tourists a day. “All of the rooms were booked up for the upcoming May Day holiday,” said a manager of the company running the hotels on behalf of Zhang.

The homestay industry has provided jobs for over 40 villagers, permitting those gainfully employed to work near their homes. “I earn a monthly salary of 2,500 yuan and I can look after my family after work,” said Zhao Jinhua, a cleaner from a local hotel.

In 2019, all the 58 low-income households in the village were lifted out of poverty. In 2020, the per capita net income of villagers in Houheilongmiao village reached 21,000 yuan (approximately $3,236).