Residents of Hezhe ethnic group living in NE China’s Heilongjiang embrace better life through rural vitalization drive

At dawn, Lu Zhenyu, a resident at Zhuaji village in the easternmost part of China, where the majority of the population are of the Hezhe ethnic group, began fishing in the Wusuli River while his wife livestreamed him with a mobile phone.

The aerial photo shows Zhuaji village in Fuyuan county, Heilongjiang Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Local people in Zhuaji, Wusu township, Fuyuan city, northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, have depended on fishing for their livelihood for generations. By livestreaming his fishing activities, Lu has become a social media influencer with over 2 million followers and a front runner in the village that has embraced prosperity through livestreaming.

“I can earn over 100,000 yuan ($14,923) during the one-month fishing season,” the young man said, adding that he also uses his platform to show off the living environment and folk culture of the village during the off season.

Zhuaji village has become an Instagram-worthy tourist destination, with flat and wide paved roads, rows of new houses built with Hezhe ethnic characteristics, and B&Bs of a modern style dotted around the mountains and rivers in the locality.

It is hard to believe that over one decade ago, it was still so backward and isolated from the outside world. Despite long having rich tourism and fishing resources, locals had nonetheless lived a poor life.

Guided by recent government policies and based on local realities, the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee of Wusu township has actively encouraged local fishermen to develop the tourism, fruit and vegetable industries as well as a unique Hezhe cultural industry by making use of the township’s advantages in geography, resources and ethnically-inspired catering services.

In 2014, under the support of the government, 167 households bid farewell to their decades-old, flood-stricken mud houses and moved into new ones with electricity, water, Internet connectivity and central heating systems. Meanwhile, many people in the village have opened family hotels and restaurants featuring fish dishes, gradually exploring a new path towards prosperity.

Villagers in the Sipai Hezhe ethnic township, Raohe county, Shuangyashan city, Heilongjiang, never thought that tourism could become a major income source for them. In fact, since the villagers had always been engaged in farm work over the years, many often felt reluctant at first to make a significant shift towards developing tourism businesses instead.

To ease villagers’ concerns over the prospects of a local tourism industry, the Party committee and government of the township invited experts from the Academy of Agricultural Planning and Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, to offer advice on local tourism development. Finally, the township decided on a tourism development roadmap themed on folk customs, ecology as well as ice and snow, and has since vigorously developed tourism along the river in the border region with Russia, along with eco-tourism, ethnic tourism products, ice and snow tourism and other projects all aimed at cultivating new entry points for growing the local economy.

The Sipai Hezhe ethnic township has nine homestay operators working in the tourism industry, with the annual output value generated by local tourism reaching 2 million yuan. The township has successfully embarked on a development model that integrates agriculture, tourism and culture in an attempt to further drive rural vitalization in and around the locality.