Village that beat occupation and floods plans tourist boom

Tour guide Jin Meiling (far right) shows visitors around Hongqi. LIN HONG/XINHUA

Devastating floods

However, the village, which was located close to a river, often flooded, which hampered the development of both agriculture and tourism. Eventually, after a devastating flood in 1987, the entire village was relocated to stand alongside a nearby road.

"Back then, the road, which started in Mingyue town, was the only way to Changbai Mountain, and we hoped the village could be developed into a stopping point for travelers on their way to the mountain," said Jin Zhenguo, who was director of the Antu urban construction and environmental protection committee at the time and supervised the move.

The relocation, which started in the late 1980s, was completed in 1992, and 98 households moved into new houses with the aid of government support.

"The relocation program made Hongqi stand out from the other ethnic Korean settlements in the prefecture," said An, the researcher.

"The houses built at the time combined the traditional Korean style with modern features, appealing to visitors' tastes."

By the mid-'90s, the growing popularity of Changbai Mountain saw folk tourism become a mainstay of the village, which emphasized its traditional Korean food along with modern homestays.

"The village was busy receiving travelers - cars were everywhere in the village committee's yard. There were domestic visitors and also travelers from Japan and South Korea," recalled resident Zheng Jingshu.

However, in July 2010, Hongqi's tourism boom was destroyed by a flood that resulted in all 106 households being inundated and 26 left uninhabitable.

Farmland and tourism-related infrastructure, especially the section of road that ran to Changbai Mountain, were also destroyed, resulting in a loss of almost 38 million yuan to the village.

Jin Meiling, who was 18 at the time, saw her family home destroyed by the deluge.

"I was frightened when we lost our house, but fortunately, all my family survived," she said. "That year, I decided to quit my job in Yanji, the prefecture's capital, to help my parents rebuild our house."

The damage to the transportation infrastructure meant the village was no longer a suitable stopping place for travelers heading to Changbai Mountain.

"Ease of transportation was the village's biggest advantage after the relocation program, but the road connecting Hongqi and Changbai Mountain was almost entirely closed after the floods," said Yang Songfeng, director of Antu's culture and tourism bureau.

"It took four years to rebuild the houses and roads. The landscape changed completely during that time as other Korean villages sprang up."

Things began to improve in late 2010, when Chen Shaoke, a businessman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, decided to restore Hongqi's reputation as a tourist attraction.

He planned to do that by making full use of its traditional advantages, such as Korean food and musical performances.

"Hongqi was actually one of the first villages in China to develop rural and folk tourism, so those good traditions and culture can be revived. Also, the government has introduced preferential policies to rejuvenate the village," Chen said.

To date, he has invested about 9 million yuan ($1.3 million) to develop the village, including building a large parking lot, a performance center and a garden where visitors can pick lingzhi mushrooms, which can be eaten, and are also major ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine.