Heaven’s grace and earth’s kindness provide a paradise on earth.

Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is located in the western border of Hubei and the hinterland of Wuling. It has been known as "the throat of Sichuan and Sichuan and the barrier of Jingchu" since ancient times. The majestic Wuling Mountains, the gurgling Qingjiang River, and the traces of hundreds of millions of years have carved the most beautiful scenic corridor in China. There are majestic cliffs and dangerous peaks, meandering clear blue rivers, mysterious and legendary folk customs, and ancient villages scattered high and low.

Enshi Prefecture, located at 30° north latitude, is known as the "Selenium Capital of the World, Forest Sea in Western Hubei, and Natural Oxygen Bar". It is rich in tourism and selenium resources and has a profound national cultural heritage. However, due to traffic congestion in the past, Enshi Prefecture has always been "hidden in the boudoir and unknown to the public" and has become synonymous with poverty and backwardness. The people of Enshi Prefecture have worked hard to cut mountains and stones, build bridges and level rivers, and transform natural chasms into thoroughfares. Nowadays, transportation has been transformed and the road network extends in all directions. The tourism picture is slowly unfolding, and green waters and green mountains are turning into mountains of gold and silver.

People’s Daily Online’s “See China” integrated media interview team walked into Colorful Enshi at the end of August, touched the legend, appreciated the customs, and experienced the great changes in the mountainous countryside under the collaborative poverty alleviation between the East and the West.

A hundred years of persistence in a promise

The winding Dasha River cuts through the rolling mountains.

"Lao Wan, cross the river", a shout broke the tranquility of the cliff canyon. With a little penny, the wooden boat started steadily. 78-year-old Wan Qizhen shook the oars and sailed to the other shore more than a hundred meters away. The calm turquoise water surface ripples gently.

Dasha River Ferry is located in Sanli Township, Jianshi County, about 70 kilometers east of the center of Enshi. Looking down from the top of the mountain, Dasha River is as green as emerald. Who would have thought that at this inconspicuous ferry, four generations of the Wan family have been ferrying here for 143 years.

And this comes from a promise made by Wan Qizhen’s grandfather, Wan Zuozhu. In 1877, to avoid military service and floods, Wan Zuozhu took his family and fled from Jianli, Hubei to the banks of the Dasha River. Fortunately, with the tolerance and support of the local people, Wan Zuozhu was able to settle down.

Dashahe Village is divided into two parts by the river, with Group 5 and Group 6 facing each other across the river. Their families live on this bank and their fields are on the other bank. Many villagers cross the river several times a day, otherwise they would take a long detour. Seeing that transportation was inconvenient and people fell into the water from time to time, Wan Zuozhu decided to sell pigs to build boats and ferry them for free, in order to repay his fellow villagers.

Before Wan Zuozhu passed away in 1949, he told his descendants that the boat would not stop all day long and no money would be collected.

The hour hand points to 1995. Wan Qizhen took over the pole and became the fourth generation of the Wan family.

In the past thirty years, going back and forth day and night, he broke countless pennies. The wooden boats were replaced again and again, and a stone house built with government funding was added to the ferry. On the lower reaches of the Dasha River, a hydropower station was built, and the surging river water restrained its unruly pace.

Boats come and go, day and night. As long as she is not sick, Wan Qizhen has never been absent from work. More than ten years ago, he suffered a broken arm in an accidental slip. The eldest son Wan Fangquan, who was working outside, rushed back after hearing the news and picked up the pennant used to punctuate the boat...

The ferry usually makes fifty or sixty trips a day. In recent years, the villagers on the other side of the river have been relocated one after another, and now there are only two people in one family left, but Wanjia still insists on the free crossing. "Even if there is only one person, I will stay here and continue the ferry." Wan Qizhen said.

Wan Qizhen, the third generation and fourth boatman of the Wan family. Photo by Su Xi

Promise is as heavy as a mountain, faith comes first. Every piece of bluestone on the ferry has left the footprints of successive ferry workers. In Sanli Township, Jianshi County, a wooden sign "Centennial Xinyi Ferry" was erected here to commemorate the deeds.

In recent years, Wan Qizhen has been successively named a moral model in Hubei Province, a national "Star of Integrity", and the first "Top Ten Faithful Figures in China"... However, after returning with honor, she is still a ferryman. When Wan Qizhen had some free time, she took turns taking turns at the ferry with her son.

A promise of charity is still shining brightly after more than 140 years.

In 2018, while working on the ferry, Wan Fangquan also led more than 70 poor villagers to introduce and grow new varieties of sweet potatoes, and also tried to find markets. Relying on the good reputation of "Xinyi Ferry", sweet potatoes are selling well all over the country, and the lives of the villagers are gradually prospering.

"The ferry is repaying kindness and perseverance, and ferrying the villagers on the road to wealth is also a continuation of faith." Wan Fangquan said eloquently.

The unparalleled splendor of the folk palace

About 200 kilometers west of the Dasha River ferry, in Tangyasi Village, Xianfeng County, the story of an old man who kept his promise is also spread throughout the country. .

Xianfeng is the west gate of Hubei. The name of the county means "Xianqing Feng Year". 28 kilometers northwest of the county, at the foothills of Xuanwu Mountain and by the Tangya River, the ruins of Tangya Tusi City are hidden among lush trees.

In 1980, an old man named Chen Zhaonan accepted the arrangement of the cultural relics management department to take care of the Tangya Tusi City ruins. According to his descendants, the initial salary was only 20 yuan, and later it was 200 yuan per year. Although the income is meager, cleaning, patrolling, repairing, and explaining are done day after day, rain or shine. He kept his promise and patrolled the mountains and protected the city until the last moment of his life.

When it comes to Tusi City, let’s start with the Tusi system. During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, in the southwest minority areas, the ancient central dynasty appointed local leaders to serve as "chieftains" and rule hereditary. Use barbarians to control barbarians, use barbarians to control barbarians. Qi Zheng cultivates education and governs according to customs. During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, the chieftain system collapsed after the implementation of the "return to local rule".

After the founding of New China, the Enshi Agency was established in Western Hubei. In 1983, the Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Western Hubei was established, becoming the youngest ethnic minority autonomous prefecture in the country. In 1993, it was renamed Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, with jurisdiction over 2 cities and 6 counties.

It is said that the Tujia people are descendants of the ancient Cubans, and the Qin family is one of the largest surnames. Tangya Tusi City is the seat of the Qin family chieftain. It has been followed by 18 chieftains for 16 generations, which lasted for 381 years.

Walking into the ruins, the street walls are clearly identifiable and some buildings are well preserved. Tusi City is backed by mountains and faces water, facing east and west, in an irregular square shape, with a total area of ??740,000 square meters, which is 20,000 square meters larger than the Forbidden City in Beijing.

This private imperial city has 3 streets, 18 lanes, and 36 courtyards. It is large in scale and extraordinary in momentum. There are government offices, prison cells, academies, shooting ranges, animal gardens and other facilities with clear layout and complete functions.

Today, only a handful of ruins remain, stretching on several hillsides.

The grass is luxuriant and the trees are dense. The walls are broken and the moss is deep. Criss-crossing the Ming Dynasty stone roads, stone figures and horses outside Zhangwang Temple, relief sculptures of "Fishing, Woodworking, Farming and Reading" on the archway of "Jingnan Xiong Town"... mottled ruins eroded by wind for hundreds of years silently tell the story of the glory of the past, giving people a glimpse of the mystery of Tusi culture. veil.

On July 4, 2015, the Tangya Tusi City Ruins, together with the Laosicheng Ruins in Yongshun, Hunan, and the Hailongdun Ruins in Guizhou, jointly represent China’s “Tusi Ruins” and were included in the World Cultural Heritage List. The ruins of Tangya Tusi City have thus become a world-class cultural business card.

Culture is the soul of tourism. "Intangible cultural heritage" has become the starting point for Enshi Prefecture to promote the integration of agriculture and tourism, culture and tourism, and tourism.

On August 29, 2020, gongs, drums and suonas were heard in Dongxiacao Village, Baiyangping Township, Enshi City. The annual Tujia Daughters will have a romantic dance here. The Enshi Daughters' Meeting has a history of more than 300 years. It preserves the original marriage customs of the ancient Ba people. It is a festival for young men and women of the Tujia nationality to pursue love and freedom of marriage. It is known as the "Oriental Valentine's Day".

The wedding ceremony of the Tujia Daughters Association. Photo by Chen Bowen

Today’s Daughters’ Association has evolved into a cultural event. This year, the main venue is Dong Ha Cao Village, and there are three branch venues. The wedding customs performances and intangible cultural heritage displays are brilliant, Enshi Lantern Opera and Yangqin are staged in turn, and the water carnival is very popular. Tourists from all over the world come in droves, and the laughter and laughter can be heard throughout the valley.

In addition to Tangya Tusi City and Daughter's Club, "Enshi Green and Lichuan Red" tea, Lichuan Dragon Boat Diao, Badong Trackers, Xuanen Flower Gongs and Drums... one after another "golden business cards" of intangible cultural heritage have attracted the attention of the whole region. Tourism helps Enshi overcome poverty and develop high-quality cultural tourism industry.

Tangya Tusi City Site, the state-owned enterprise Enlv Group was introduced in 2019, and Tangya Tusi City Site Tourism Development Co., Ltd. was established. The "Tangya Tusi Cultural Industrial Park" is currently being planned.

The commentator Chen Fei recalled that what was sad was that one year before the application was successful, his grandfather Chen Zhaonan passed away due to illness. On his deathbed, the old man told Chen Fei that he would no longer go out to work and stay in the village as a commentator to tell the story of Tangya Tusi City to more people.

In order to apply for World Heritage, more than 300 people from 92 households, including the elderly, moved from the core area of ??the site to the resettlement community, turning from farmers into residents. Nowadays, some people start businesses and some work part-time. Chen Fei became a commentator and earned two to three thousand yuan a month. There are 60 people like her working in the heritage management office.

When the relevant departments proposed to restore the ruins and start repairs, Xie Xianhua, a nearby villager who had been making stone tablets all year round, was elected as the first choice craftsman for the restoration of the Tangya Tusi City ruins because of his superb skills.

After the application was successful, Xie Xianhua opened a farmhouse and a Tujia B&B near the scenic spot. Unknowingly, Xie Yanjiang Inn has gone through five years. At the end of August, Xie Yanjiang was planning to restart the renovation of the inn that had been put on hold due to the epidemic. With the recent increase in tourists, the farmhouse had to hire more people. Tujia mountain villages are regaining their former vitality.

Camellia Villa’s hope for prosperity

Speaking of farmhouses, Ma Su’e from Bajiao Dong Township in Enshi City said that by the end of September this year, her Camellia Villa had gone through 12 years.

In Gaogongqiao Village, surrounded by green plants and flowers, the antique Dong wooden building Camellia Villa with its curved ridges and flying eaves is particularly eye-catching. "I got married in this village in 2002, wearing rain boots and stepping on the field ridge." Ma Su'e said with a smile.

This is the hometown of Enshi Yulu Tea. However, in the past, the roads in the village were impassable, the houses were dilapidated, and the living standards of the villagers were generally low. They relied on tea gardens, and the per capita income was less than 2,000 yuan.

2007 was a very unusual year for Gao Gongqiao Village and Ma Su'e. It is not only the beginning of the village's wealth, but also the turning point of personal destiny.

In April, Fengxiangpo Dong Customs Village opened, and Ma Su'e and more than 300 people in the village began to eat "tourist meals." Ma Su'e also took the lead in establishing the Fengxiangpo Art Troupe to rehearse original literary and artistic programs that reflect the original ecology of the Dong people. She also continued to explore the establishment of literary and artistic teams such as the Lusheng Honor Guard, the Kaizhaimen Welcome Team, and the Tea Culture Performance Team, which became a major attraction of Fengxiang Slope to attract tourists. She has worked as a tour guide and graduated from a normal school music major, and she has found a place to use her skills.

"Wear Dong clothes, be a tea picker for a day, watch a Dong opera, and drink a cup of selenium-rich tea..." Relying on the unique Dong customs, this place has gradually become a collection of Dong culture, It is a rural ecological leisure tourism demonstration village that integrates tea culture, special catering services, and ecological experience and leisure.

More and more tourists are coming here. Ma Su'e made up her mind to rebuild her family's house and take the lead in running a farmhouse. On September 28, 2008, Camellia Villa opened.

In 2008, the Fengxiangpo Dong Village Ecological Agriculture Professional Cooperative was established, with Ma Su'e as the chairman. She has become the "lead dancer" of Dong rural agriculture, tourism and cultural industries.

In 2014, the cumulative income from tourism in Gaogongqiao Village reached 22.48 million yuan, and the per capita income of farmers reached more than 7,520 yuan. In 2018, the number of tourism receptions in the village exceeded 1 million, and the total tourism revenue exceeded 89.48 million yuan. Today, the per capita income of villagers reaches 18,000 yuan. The annual income of Camellia Villa has exceeded 2 million yuan.

On September 28, 2017, Ma Su'e's Camellia Villa opened, just a stone's throw away from Camellia Villa.

She once again took the lead in seeking change and realized the transformation and development from a farmhouse to a boutique B&B.

Clouds fall, wind rises, see the mountain, listen to the rain, light and shadow, Xiaoya... These are the names of the rooms in the Dong family wooden house "Camellia Mountain Residence". Full of humanistic feelings and rich artistic flavor, Camellia Mountain Residence has become an internet celebrity B&B, and it is also a window for tourists to experience Dong customs and Enshi culture.

"During the epidemic, when many big hotels could not maintain their operations, I was very busy here." Ma Su'e said that the epidemic has also changed her business model, from the previous pure offline to online and offline. . Through the e-commerce platform, she directly connects with tea companies and frequently delivers live broadcasts of various specialty agricultural products. The unique live broadcast room is set up at the left-hand entrance of Camellia Villa.

Dozens of kilometers away, another group of people are also busy bringing goods for live broadcast.

"Enshi Yulu Dry Tea is emerald green, the soup is clear green, and the bottom of the leaves is tender green..." In Huazhishan Village, Tunbao Township, Enshi City, 33-year-old Deng Ling walked into the live broadcast room to try it on the spot or perform a show Talent.

If Ma Su'e's live broadcast is her spontaneous change in response to the epidemic, then Deng Ling's live broadcast with goods is a proactive practice in Hangzhou, thousands of miles away.

As a demonstration site for poverty alleviation cooperation between the East and the West, Huazhishan currently has a tea-based industry with parallel cultural and tourism industries. Jianggan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province and Enshi City, Hubei Province decided to build an Internet celebrity live broadcast village around Huazhi Mountain to cultivate authentic mountain farmers to become Internet celebrities.

In July this year, more than 20 farmers, including Deng Ling, began a two-week live training, and the teachers came from the Viya team, Hangzhou Media Group, Alibaba Taobao University, etc.

According to Deng Ling, the training content involves more than 10 courses such as how to be a good e-commerce anchor, how to open a live broadcast online store, and professional self-media operations. The content is even detailed to how to shoot and how to write. The scripts and how to interact with fans are all practical skills and full of useful information.

With the help of Hangzhou, Huazhishan Village has achieved full coverage of 5G WiFi signals. The two places have also launched incentive policies to encourage tutors to bring "farmer internet celebrities" into the live broadcast room boldly. Today, the three-person live broadcast team led by Deng Ling is busy non-stop, starting live broadcasts one after another.

According to Yao Honghua, member of the Standing Committee of the Enshi Municipal Party Committee and deputy mayor, in 2019, through e-commerce marketing, Enshi’s unsalable selenium-rich potatoes were successfully introduced to the market and became a “hot internet celebrity product” and created Set a record of selling 600,000 kilograms of potatoes in a single day. At present, the city has built three 10,000-acre poverty alleviation bases, producing more than 100 kinds of agricultural products such as tea and millet. Through the East-West Poverty Alleviation Collaboration, consumption poverty alleviation sales have reached nearly 60 million yuan, driving an increase in the per capita income of farmers by more than 2,000 yuan.

In April 2020, the Hubei Provincial Government announced that 5 counties (cities) in Enshi Prefecture that were supported by Hangzhou's counterpart assistance would withdraw from poverty-stricken counties. Since then, Enshi Prefecture has achieved comprehensive poverty alleviation and opened a new chapter in history.

One red and one green "selenium" looks forward to the industry

Whether it is Liquidambar Slope or Huazhi Mountain, tea is inseparable from the lives of Enshi people.

In Enshi Prefecture, there are tea gardens almost wherever there are mountains. Beside the winding mountain road and among the misty mountains, there are green tea gardens.

The tea tree is a tree of wealth for the people of Enshi Prefecture. Every year, about 40% of farmers' income in Enshi Prefecture comes from tea.

The tea garden in Dongxiacao Village has a planting area of ??11,000 acres, generating an annual output value of approximately 80 million yuan. Through the development of specialty industries and rural tourism, Dongxiacao Village has provided employment for 185 villagers.

The 100,000-acre tea garden in Bajiao Dong Township is green all year round, with an annual output of 8,000 tons of dry tea and an output value of over 500 million yuan. The tea industry has become a pillar industry in "strengthening the township and enriching the people."

In April 2018, "Enshi Yulu" and "Lichuan Red" produced in Enshi Prefecture became the tea used in state events, which became a major milestone in the brand building of Enshi selenium tea.

According to statistics from the Enshi Prefecture Agricultural Bureau, as of September this year, the total tea garden area in the prefecture reached 1.7882 million acres.

The comprehensive output value of tea in the whole state exceeded 15 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10. There are 800,000 tea farmers in the state, with per capita tea income of 5,587 yuan.

Selenium-rich tea is just a microcosm of Enshi Prefecture’s selenium industry.

Enshi Prefecture has the world’s only independent selenium deposit, and soil with moderate selenium content accounts for 95% of the prefecture’s total land area. According to expert research, the main functions of selenium are to improve immunity, resist aging, and resist oxidation. It has a very good effect on heart maintenance and health care, so it is known as a longevity element. In 2015, the average life expectancy of residents in Enshi Prefecture was 80.64 years, higher than the national average in 2015.

Taking Enshi City as an example, after years of hard work, the city has built five standardized production bases for selenium-rich agricultural products, including a selenium-rich tea base, a selenium-rich alpine vegetable base, a selenium-rich traditional Chinese medicinal material base and a selenium-rich agricultural product base. The grain and oil base reaches 470,000 acres, and the selenium-rich livestock and poultry base is 200,000 heads and 300,000 feathers respectively.

In 2019, the total output value of Enshi Prefecture’s selenium industry reached 63.471 billion yuan.

China has beautiful landscapes and is a blessing from God. In fact, good mountains, good waters and good products have always been there. However, Enshi, deep in the mountains, has always been trapped by roads. Goods from the mountains can't get out, and tourists from outside can't come in. It has been trapped in poverty and backwardness for a long time.

At the beginning of the reform and opening up, most villagers had to carry packs on their backs when going out to the mountains. By the end of the 20th century, Enshi Prefecture had only National Highways 318 and 209, and they were also affected by mudslides, landslides, etc.

In December 2009, the entire Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway was put into trial operation, ending the history of no expressways in Enshi Prefecture.

In December 2010, the Yi-Wanzhou Railway was fully opened, ending the history of Enshi Prefecture without railways.

On July 16, 2020, the Xuanhe Expressway was opened and connected to the national network, marking the realization of "county-county expressway" in Enshi Prefecture.

Highways and railways not only connect the mountains inside and outside the mountains, giving wings to the mountains' economic development, but they have also become beautiful landscapes themselves. The Cliff-hanging Highway, the Sidu River Bridge, the Baye Highway... they are either magical or steep, dreamy or magnificent, breathtakingly beautiful, and popular on the Internet.

Tan Guiying, a villager in Yingshang, Enshi City, was deeply impressed by the inconvenience of transportation in the past. It took most of a day to go to the county seat. Her family was poor. After graduating from junior high school, she went to Guangdong to work and even borrowed money for travel expenses. In 2006, when she heard that the Enshi Grand Canyon Scenic Area was opening at her doorstep, she returned to her hometown, became a tour guide, and worked outside her home. With unremitting efforts, she became a national model worker in the tourism system. Now she has also organized a tour group of 11 Tujia girls. Each person's monthly salary is more than 3,000, plus "five insurances and one housing fund", and his life is rich and stable.

The Enshi Grand Canyon is located squarely at the mysterious 30° north latitude, at the junction of the three provinces of Hunan, Chongqing, and Hubei. In the canyon, there are 10,000-meter cliff galleries, thousands of feet of waterfalls, and hundreds of single peaks. The ravine is ten miles deep and long, and it amazes the world with its majestic and beautiful geological wonders. It is known as the "Natural Museum of Karst Topography".

In August 2004, the Sino-French joint expedition team came to Enshi and unexpectedly discovered a beautiful grand canyon among the high mountains, which was named "Enshi Grand Canyon".

Enshi Grand Canyon. Photo by Zeng Zhiqiang

Enshi Grand Canyon is 49 kilometers away from Enshi City and 39 kilometers from Lichuan City. According to reports, this is one of the birthplaces of "Oriental Valentine's Day - Tujia Romantic Daughters' Club", it is the location of the Grand Canyon live musical "Dragon Boat Tune", and it is the "beautiful scar on the earth" - the seam of Yunlong. It is the location of "Yi Zhu Xiang", one of the 40 most beautiful scenic spots in China, which is rated by foreign media. It is known as "the geological wonder of the world, the Colorado of the East".

According to the "Hubei Daily" report, in 2010, during the first "May Day" period after the opening of the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway, the 10-kilometer road leading to the Enshi Grand Canyon was densely packed with self-driving cars.

The number of tourists to this 5A-level scenic spot has soared from 300,000 before the expressway opened in 2008 to more than 2 million in 2019.

Lichuan Tenglong Cave, Suobuya Stone Forest, Qingjiang Butterfly Cliff, Shennong River Rafting... Rich tourism resources attract tourists from all over the world. Statistics show that the number of tourists received by Enshi Prefecture increased from 6.63 million in 2009 to 71.1771 million in 2019, and the comprehensive tourism revenue reached 53.045 billion yuan. Tourism has directly created employment for 100,000 local people and indirectly lifted 400,000 people out of poverty.

Green waters and green mountains have turned into mountains of gold and silver. The unique landscape, unique health-preserving environment, and unique national culture make Colorful Enshi the most beautiful back garden in China.