Township's transformation brings rich awards

Remote area benefits from series of support measures

Visitors watch Li Wenshi as she weaves colorful traditional tapestries in Dizhengdang, a village tucked away in the mountains of Southwest China's Yunnan province.

Li, a member of the Derung ethnic group, is 77 and her face is covered in tattoos, which, according to legend, protect Derung women from attempts by outsiders to kidnap them. She sums up her life in the village in a single word — "gratitude", which she uses repeatedly.

The tapestries, which are popular as tourist souvenirs, were once worn in daily life and also traded for necessities such as salt. Li tells visitors that girls learned how to weave the tapestries when they were as young as 4 or 5.

Li's ancestors lived mainly in deep gorges alongside the Dulong River in northwest Yunnan. After enduring poverty and poor transportation links to the outside world, the group bade farewell to its primitive way of life only after the founding of New China in 1949.

Li said: "We didn't have good roads in the past. It took a week to travel from our village to Gongshan (Gongshan Derung and Nu autonomous county) — far too long to help villagers who were sick. But now, it takes less than three hours to reach the hospital in Gongshan, where I needed treatment when I fell ill at the end of December."

Although she was in hospital for several days, she said she recovered at little expense, "thanks to the government's healthcare measures".

In 2014, the travel time between Dizhengdang and Gongshan was reduced to around three hours when a major tunnel on the Dulongjiang Highway opened. To reach the county previously, villagers had to navigate their way through winding mountain roads, which were covered in snow for six months in winter.

Li witnessed the villagers leaving their shabby straw huts for comfortable concrete houses equipped with running water and electricity. They now also have access to the internet and good transportation services.

"We can do whatever we want in our house, such as selling traditional tapestries to visitors. We have access to the outside world, thanks to the internet. I couldn't be more grateful that our lives have improved so much," Li said.

She added that she even sang a song in the Derung dialect to show her gratitude to President Xi Jinping when she met him in January 2015 during his inspection tour of Kunming, capital of Yunnan.

Li said that Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, encouraged people from all ethnic groups to keep up their good work. Xi told them that the CPC attaches great importance to their development.

The Derung people wrote to Xi in 2018, telling him the good news that the entire group had been lifted out of poverty. He wrote back, congratulating them on their success.

"Poverty eradication is only the first step; better days are yet to come," Xi said in his letter, adding, "Letting people from all ethnic groups have a good life has been my aspiration as well as our common goal."

The radical changes experienced by the Derung people are a telling example of Xi's people-centered development philosophy to meet the public's ever-growing needs for a better standard of living.

Gao Zhiying, a professor at Yunnan University studying the Derung group, said that based on her 20-plus years of research, the far-reaching changes witnessed by the group are the result of a series of targeted anti-poverty support measures introduced by the authorities.

This action has led to substantial improvements in the group's well-being, such as better transportation services, healthcare, education, housing and tourism, Gao said.

Online benefits

Smartphones and the internet are now commonly used in Dulongjiang township for business and leisure purposes.

For example, Song Xiulan, 50, who lives in Longyuan village, bought a secondhand electric sewing machine online to make tapestries and clothing in the traditional Derung style. She said the machine improves her efficiency and enables her to earn more.

To promote their wares, the villagers also use livesteaming services provided by platforms such as Douyin and Taobao.

Before the telecommunications network reached this remote corner of China in 2004, it was difficult for Dulongjiang villagers living in different areas of the mountains to communicate with one another.

As a result, they let off firecrackers at 8 pm to signal meetings that were usually scheduled for the following afternoon. One bang indicated a regular meeting, while two meant an emergency.

The government promoted construction projects as part of a series of measures to fuel development of the township and lift its residents out of poverty.

In 2014, Dulongjiang was the first township in Yunnan to have a 4G network, and five years later, it was the first in the province to have a 5G network.

The preferential policies and support from the authorities have also been observed in many other fields.

Song is one of those who have benefited from increased government support for education.

In the 1990s, she walked six or seven days to reach her middle school in Gongshan, and the lack of financial support at that time forced the poverty-stricken girl to abandon her ambition to study at senior high school.

But now, her three daughters are receiving higher education, with the eldest a postgraduate student at Yunnan University, Song said, adding that her family receives a range of government support.

Song earns a monthly salary of 800 yuan ($116) as a forest ranger, and her eldest daughter has applied for a 5,000 yuan annual grant from the education authority. The family also receives subsidies for schooling.

"I hope my girls can change their lives through education and contribute more to the country in return," Song said.

Local authorities have also helped the villagers tap new industries to increase their incomes.

For example, in Dulongjiang it was discovered that black cardamom, also known as caoguo, was suitable for growing at high altitude. The local authorities invited agricultural technicians from Gongshan to train the villagers and expand cultivation of the crop.

However, the villagers were reluctant to try this new plant, so the then-township head, Gao Derong, decided to plant the herb and provide seedlings after he made a profit from the business.

By the end of 2021, more than 4,600 hectares had been used to plant black cardamom, with its value reaching more than 20 million yuan, data from the township show.

In addition, the annual net income of Dulongjiang villagers rose from 916 yuan in 2009 to more than 15,000 yuan in 2021, most of which was from black cardamom.

Gao, from Yunnan University, said, "In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the major impetus for making improvements to people's wellbeing has switched from external forces such as governments to internal motivation."

She said villagers have become more motivated to try new things to achieve a better life, instead of relying on and waiting for support from the authorities, and this factor has played an important part in rural vitalization.

Gao also said that more young talent has returned to the area.

For example, after graduating from Yunnan Agricultural University in 2020, Chen Xuelong returned to his home village of Dizhengdang to help residents develop online sales from planting glossy ganoderma (a type of fungus) and herbs in forests.

"What I want most is to help my fellow villagers benefit from industrial growth," he said.

Chen Rongquan, 43, opened the first bed-and-breakfast establishment in Dulongjiang, which hosted up to 180 tourists annually until 2020, when COVID-19 emerged.

But he wants to do more than earn money. "To cater to visitors' curiosity about our culture, I want to restore some Derung traditions that are in danger of dying out, such as dances and ceremonies for worship," he said.

Gao said many residents such as Chen Xuelong and Chen Rongquan are willing to help their fellow villagers, which could aid the all-around development of Dulongjiang.

She suggested that local authorities adjust existing measures and policies, and draw up new ones to aid the township's transformation.