Remote forest farm becomes popular scenic area after embracing tourism

By leveraging snow and ice resources, the Shuangfeng Forest Farm, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, has embarked on a road toward prosperity.

In the past, workers in the forest farm often encountered difficulties in transporting wood outside during snowy days. As the forest farm started to reduce wood production and stop logging of natural forests, the workers’ incomes shrank sharply.

Tourists take photos at Shuangfeng Forest Farm in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Nov. 18, 2021. Shuangfeng Forest Farm, dubbed "Snow Town of China," receives up to 180 days of snow every year, and the average annual snow thickness is 2.6 meters. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Thanks to its beautiful natural scenery, the forest farm has gradually emerged as a popular destination for photography enthusiasts and tourists. Taking this as an opportunity, the local residents have vigorously developed tourism and related industries, turning snow and ice resources into valuable assets. The forest farm is therefore dubbed as “Snow Town of China.”

Before the forest farm was opened to tourists on Dec. 12, 2022, it had already sold 100,000 admission tickets. The scenic area expects to enter a peak tourist season during the Chinese New Year, which will be celebrated in late January 2023.

Fan Zhaoyi was one of less than 10 workers of the forest farm to first shift to a homestay business. The man recalled that as the forest farm reduced wood production, many workers started to look for a job outside of the forest farm.

Fan was reluctant to leave the forest farm. He later found that some photographers would come to the forest to take pictures which caught widespread attention after being shared online. As a result of this, an increasing number of tourists started to visit the forest.

“In 2000, I opened my own homestay business which provided four guest rooms covering an area of 70 square meters. The business started to generate revenue the next year,” Fan recalled.

Photo shows a scene at Shuangfeng Forest Farm in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Nov. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

In 2006, Gao Xiuli, Fan’s neighbor, opened a homestay business.

“With loans provided to us by the government and money I borrowed from my friends and relatives, I opened four guest rooms at first. Then I opened six more rooms and installed bathrooms for the 10 rooms. I also transformed the courtyard into a dining place. Now, my homestay business is full-fledged,” Gao said.

In 2018, Fan invested more than 4 million yuan ($574,400) to expand his business, increasing the number of guest rooms to 30.

Nowadays, there are more than 200 business entities in the forest farm.

The local business people have worked hard to improve their products and services. On Dec. 12, 2022, the forest farm’s opening day, tourists were seen entering the scenic area in an orderly manner through the facial recognition system at the entrance gate.

“The intelligent scenic area management platform can not only manage ticket booking, but also features a review and complaint management system and an environmental monitoring system, among other functions. The platform is also able to monitor the flow of tourists during peak hours,” said Ren Jianpeng, deputy director of the forest tourism development department of Dahailin Forestry Bureau Co., Ltd. affiliated with the China Longjiang Forest Industry Group Co., Ltd.

A tourist poses for photos at Shuangfeng Forest Farm in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Nov. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

“We’ve also strengthened training for our staff members in marketing and hotel services,” said Ning Xiaofeng, vice general manager of Dahailin Forestry Bureau Co., Ltd., which is affiliated with the China Longjiang Forest Industry Group Co., Ltd.

Ning disclosed that they are currently designing tourism products, such as wellness products and study-themed products, for the next summer.

Dahailin Forestry Bureau Co., Ltd., has introduced e-commerce in the production, circulation, and sales of forestry products and leveraged short-video platforms to promote its products.

In addition to developing tourism resources, the forest farm has also taken measures to protect forest landscape resources. It has launched an environmental governance project, replanting more than 1,000 mu (about 66.7 hectares) of trees and building an ecological functional zone that covers tens of thousands of mu of land.