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China Story | From the thousand-year-old town to the characteristic Miao Village

From the thousand-year-old town to the characteristic Miao Village, the "Four Good Rural Roads" have witnessed the gorgeous butterfly changes in the countryside

Dousha Pass, known as Shimen Pass in ancient times, is located in the southwest of Yanjin County, Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province, and is the first dangerous pass from Shu to Yunnan in ancient times. There is a five-foot road in Dousha Pass, which is the oldest official road connecting Yunnan and the mainland, and is also the main road of the eastern route of the Southern Silk Road connecting the Central Plains, Sichuan and Yunnan.



Walk down the stairs along the five-foot road of Dousha Pass, and the ancient and modern roads "meet" here. In ancient times, there were Qin Ancient Road, Zhuti Waterway, and now there are Neikun Railway, Yunnan-Sichuan Highway, Shuima Expressway, forming a magnificent landscape of "five parallel roads". Along the five-foot road up through the Dousha Pass, you can see the Dousha Ancient Town, which has a history of more than 2,200 years, and the current Dousha Ancient Town was rebuilt after the earthquake and officially opened for tourism in 2008.




  "Stepping on a five-foot road, a glance for three thousand years. "This ancient road with a history of thousands of years has not only witnessed the transportation development of Zhaotong, but also witnessed the rapid economic and social development of Yanjin.

Yanjin County is a typical mountainous county, with heavy mountains, steep mountains and ravines, and the mountainous area accounts for 99.92% of the total area. "In the past, the traffic was blocked, and it took a day from Yanjin to Zhaotong, and the people's special agricultural products could not be transported, so they could only be pulled to the county to sell, and those that could not be sold were rotten in the ground. Yang Shihan, secretary of the Yanjin County Party Committee of Zhaotong City, said in an interview with reporters that now, not only the national and provincial highways have been widened, but also the highways have been opened, and now it only takes one and a half hours to reach Zhaotong.


If you want to get rich, build roads first. When the road is opened, agricultural products will naturally not be sold, and good things can be sold at a good price, and the villagers will naturally become rich. According to Yang Shihan, relying on the local 3,500 kilometers of rural roads, the special agricultural products that are "raised in the deep boudoir and waiting to be known" have gone out of the mountains and into thousands of households with the help of a convenient transportation network.



Rural roads connect the countryside and the city, and connect the barren and the rich, the poor and the hopeful. Yang Shihan calculated an "economic account" for the reporter, taking vegetables as an example, in the past, he sold them in the county, and he could only sell them for two or three thousand yuan per acre of land. Nowadays, vegetables are transported to Shanghai by carts to be sold, and one mu of land can be sold for eight or nine thousand yuan, and the income of the people has increased very quickly.

  China Story: "When the road is opened, the industry is alive and the tourists are coming. Dousha Ancient Town, a thousand-year-old town, is becoming more and more popular and famous. Yang Shihan told reporters that during the Spring Festival this year, Dousha Ancient Town received more than 30,000 tourists, and the number of tourists during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays reached 100,000.

  "Transportation has played a vital role in Shiotsu since ancient times. In ancient times, Shiojin flourished because of the mountain roads and waterways. Today's Shiotsu will once again be revived by transportation. Talking about the future development of Yanjin, Yang Shihan is full of confidence. "In 2026, the Chongqing-Kunming high-speed railway will be opened to traffic, and Yanjin will be one of the stops, which will also bring huge opportunities to the development of Yanjin. ”

Benefiting from the development of transportation to usher in a happy life, Luoping Village, Chestnut Town, Suijiang County, the village is located in Suijiang, Shuifu, Yanjin 3 counties (cities) between the mountains, there are 50,000 acres of primeval forest, 23,000 acres of bamboo base, local villagers mostly go to the mountains to collect bamboo shoots for a living.

  "In the past, bamboo shoots could not be sold due to inconvenient transportation, causing huge economic losses to local villagers, but now with the continuous improvement of highway transportation facilities, the local bamboo industry has opened up sales channels, and the income of villagers has increased several times. Li Renfeng, secretary of the party committee of Chestnut Town, told reporters that most of the villagers in the past lived in rotten wooden houses, walked on muddy roads, drank muddy water, and lived a hard life. Now most families have a fixed income, live in a "small villa", and life is getting more and more prosperous.

Li Renfeng uses three butterfly changes to describe the important role of transportation in local development. The first butterfly change was in 2008, when the upgrading and transformation of the double tea line was launched, and the resettlement of Luohanping Reservoir was implemented simultaneously, so that the immigrants lived in earthquake-resistant houses from wooden houses.

The second butterfly change was during the period of poverty alleviation, through the implementation of ex-situ poverty alleviation and relocation, so that the people living in the cold, remote and traffic jams lived in "small villas". Through the construction of hardened roads, garbage disposal, sanitary toilets, communication and electricity and other facilities have been improved simultaneously, and the local production and living conditions have been thoroughly improved.

The third butterfly change is that after poverty alleviation in 2018, asphalt roads were paved for the Shuangcha line, and at the same time, the road of integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism was taken, and through the construction of "Butterfly Miao Village", a forest health tourism destination was created, and villagers were driven to work nearby. At the same time, 13 kilometers of bamboo industry roads and 35 kilometers of bamboo shoot picking roads have been built, turning lucid waters and lush mountains into gold and silver mountains.

Whether the fellow is rich or not, the foundation is on the highway. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the "Four Good Rural Roads" have been connected into a network, which has greatly shortened the time and space distance between urban and rural areas, profoundly changed the production and living conditions and social outlook of rural areas, and broadened a road for the local people to get rid of poverty and become rich.

According to the data, as of 2022, the total mileage of rural roads in the country has reached 4.53 million kilometers, and the proportion of graded roads has reached 96%. In the past ten years, China has supported the reconstruction of 65,000 kilometers of resource roads, tourism roads and industrial roads in poverty-stricken areas.


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