Tianhetan scenic area, an epitome of rural revitalization through developing ecotourism in Guizhou

“The boat floats on the green waves, and people feel like travelling in the pictures.” When the boat goes down the river to the underground cave of Tianhetan scenic area, tourists can see lush vegetationand the emerald-green water under the sun.

On the morning of July 10, a group of foreign journalists for the Eco Forum Global Guiyang 2021 visited Tianhetan scenic area, a famous tourist attraction in Guizhou. The ecological environment cooled the summer heat and brought the refreshing “green” to the press corps.

Tianhetan scenic area is located in Huaxi District of Guiyang City of Guizhou Province, mainly featuring on the typical karst natural scenery. Curved valleys and steep gullies are in harmony with mountains, streams, caves, pools, waterfalls, natural bridges, canyons and hermit culture. Tianhetan scenic area is acclaimed as an epitome of landscapes of Guizhou.

Tianhetan scenic area witnesses villagers dressed in minority costumes selling their own agricultural products with good quality and at low price. In order to help villagers increase their income and drive economic development, Tianhetan scenic area is carrying out rural revitalization through developing ecological tourism.

Wu San, a resident from a near-by village, has transformed from a migrant worker into a tour guide in Tianhetan scenic area. Due to the Tianhetan scenic area poverty alleviation project a few years ago, she decided to return to her hometown to work.

As a member of the Buoyei minority, Wu San has a deeper affection to her hometown than others. According to her, there are many major festivals for the nearby ethnic minorities. These occasions will be missed if they work outside. So many people of ethnic minorities are reluctant to go out for employment. Even if they do, their homesickness is very strong.

According to her, in order to drive the local employment rate and economic development, most of the employees working in Tianhetan scenic area are residents of the four nearby villages. “The educated ones are here to do jobs like tour guides, and the uneducated ones can be security guards or cleaners. They can get stable incomes from the jobs close to their homes, so they don’t need to work in other cities.” She said.

She added, “In fact, not only the staff has been benefited. In order to provide more jobs, the rent of stores in the Tianhetan scenic area is so cheap that the villagers can start a small business here, bringing more opportunities for local villagers to work in stores to get income.”

For the purpose of generating income, increasing employment for villagers and pushing forward industrial development through regional construction, the Tianhe rural revitalization project for the four villages also takes Zhenshan folk culture village as a model, integrating “agriculture, culture and tourism” to create several major demonstration areas, such as the native Bouyei ethnic culture and leisure area, the Zhenshan green valley creative agriculture demonstration area and the new idyllic and spiritual resort area,

Lv Guodong, a journalist from Rossiya Segodnya said, “I’ve been to Guizhou so many times, and Tianhetan scenic area impresses me the most. Expanding the scenic area to four nearby villages  protects natural resources, attracts more tourists and helps increase income and employment for local villagers, killing three birds with one stone!” He said, “Having seen the beauty of Tianhetan scenic area, I get to know that Guizhou Province has done a lot of work in protecting environment and developing green industries.”

It has always been Guizhou’s goal to firmly guard the two bottom lines of ecology and development. Lu Yongzheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee and Minister of the Publicity Department of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, said that the growth rate of Guizhou’s digital economy has ranked first in the country for six consecutive years, and the proportion of green economy in Guizhou has increased to 44%. While the speed of economic development retained, environmental quality has also continued to improve. In 2020, Guizhou’s forest coverage rate reached 61.51%, achieving the synergy of exceeding economic growth and continuous ecological improvement. At the same time, it has initially explored a new development path different from the east and other western provinces.

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