Ecological empowerment and enrichment of tourism - the story of Youxi among green waters and mountains

Overlooking Youxi County

Go to Union Town, Youxi County, see the cascading terraces, and feel the rolling rice waves; Or go to Yangzhong Town, see the ancient houses of Guifeng one after another, walk winding paths, and visit ancient alleys; Or go to Yuchuan Township, walk the Xiatianxia boardwalk winding on the cliffs, and enjoy the glowworm landscape of the Guxi Xinghe Scenic Area...

In Youxi, which is surrounded by green waters and mountains, there are 5 national 4A-level and 12 national 3A-level tourist attractions as the best choice to spend the summer summer.

In recent years, Youxi County has actively practiced the concept of "green mountains and green water are priceless treasures", adhered to ecological priority and green development, not only the number of national A-level tourist attractions has become the largest in the province and county, but also took the "National Forest Health Care Base Pilot Construction County" as an opportunity to build 2 "provincial forest health care towns", 3 "provincial forest health care bases", 6 "provincial forest health care bases" and 24 "provincial forest villages".

Millennium Ancient County

Turquoise base

Youxi County was established in 741 AD and was the first "Millennium Ancient County" in Fujian Province to be named by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. "Eight mountains, one water and one field", with a forest coverage rate of up to 78.48%, firmly draped the "green and green" coat on the body.

People say that "relying on the mountains and eating the mountains", the Youxi people have relied on the mountains to develop industries since ancient times, and planted a large number of cash crops such as hairy bamboo, green bamboo, kumquat, oil tea, and tea. The hometown of China's kumquats, the hometown of Chinese bamboo, the hometown of China's oil tea, the hometown of China's green bamboo, the national rural industry integration development demonstration park, the national modern agricultural demonstration zone, the country's top ten ecological tea-producing counties and other "national" signboards have successively "settled" in Youxi.

In Taixi Township, the "hometown of famous tea in Fujian" and the first tea-producing township in Sanming City, there are 38,000 mu of tea gardens planted with Fuyun No. 6, Meizhan, Jin Guanyin and other varieties. The annual output of dry tea is 4200 tons, and the output value of the whole industrial chain exceeds 1 billion yuan. In March this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced the twelfth batch of national "one village, one product" demonstration villages and towns and towns with a national output value of rural characteristic industries exceeding 1 billion yuan in 2022, and Taixi Township was on the list.

"Good mountains, good aquatic products, good tea. Because the ecological environment is good and the water resources are abundant, the mountain spring water can be irrigated, and there is no need to worry about the drying of tea trees in summer. Liao Yizu, head of Youxi County Biyexin Tea Professional Cooperative, said that on the 14th of last month, the "Yangshan Meizhan" they selected won the black tea king in the ninth cross-strait tea king competition held in Zhangzhou.

The area of tea gardens in Youxi County has developed to nearly 100,000 mu, the area of bamboo forest has reached 700,000 mu, and there are also economic forests such as oil tea and kumquat, and the continuous development of industry and revitalization of the countryside in planting and protecting greenery.

The scorching summer sun scorches the earth, leaving people with nowhere to hide. However, in Jiufu Mountain, a provincial forest health care base and a provincial nature reserve, people are full of people and lively, people wander in the shade, watch the clouds, play in the water, breathe deeply, and enjoy the lung washing journey with high negative oxygen ions.

"The sky is blue, the trees are green, the scenery is beautiful, the water is clear, it is really a good place to cool off in the heat, and I am proud to have such a living environment." Mr. Liu, a resident of Youxi County, takes his children here every week during the summer to play in the water, and he also brings them here to experience when relatives and friends from afar visit.

Expand the area by points

Global tourism

Green water and green mountains are not only face, but also happiness, in fact, it is people's livelihood.

The mountains and rivers are full of luxury. Youxi County has a unique ecological resource endowment, how to attract people and stay in the house?

Build scenic spots and promote tourism. Around 2010, the Youxi County Party Committee and County Government introduced the Xiangxian Chi Zhaowen, who had previously developed tourism in Jiangxi Province, to start a business through investment promotion, and after more than 2 years of investigation and design, more than 3 years of construction, invested 200 million yuan to build experiential tourism projects such as plank roads, rafting, slides, and glass suspension bridges. In December 2015, Xia World Tourism Area was rated as a national 4A tourism area and officially opened to the public. So far, Youxi has the first national A-level tourist attraction.

One industry is prosperous, and a hundred industries are prosperous. The popularity of Xiatianxia tourist area has driven the tourism state of Hucuo Village, and farmhouses, homestays, and e-commerce have continued to emerge. In 2016, Hucuo Village was rated as a provincial beautiful village; In 2018, all 7 poor households and 19 people from the last batch of poor households in the village were lifted out of poverty, and Hucuo Village took off the hat of a municipal poor village; In 2019, Hucuo Village was listed as a model village for rural revitalization in Youxi County.

With the initiative, Youxi County has continuously innovated the system and mechanism, regarded tourism as an important starting point for industrial transformation and upgrading, and successively compiled the "Youxi County Tourism Development Master Plan (2017-2030)", "Youxi County "14th Five-Year Plan" Special Plan for Cultural and Tourism Reform and Development", "Youxi County Measures for Supporting the Development of Tourism Industry" and "Youxi County Ten Measures to Promote the High-quality Development of Tourism", forming a work pattern of "county leadership, township mastery, and departmental coordination". Explore a new way and new model for the development of all-round tourism in line with the reality of Youxi.

A large number of scenic spots such as Zhuzi Cultural Park, Guifeng Ancient Residence, and Guxi Xinghe have successively been rated as national A-level tourist scenic spots. Cultural heritage, red sites, rural tourism spots and other dots are connected and beaded into chains, and the degree of combination is getting higher and higher, and the comprehensive benefits of tourism are becoming more and more obvious. In 2022, the total number of tourists received by Youxi County will reach 4.5774 million, and the total tourism revenue will reach 3.513 billion yuan, and the number of tourists and total income will be 6 times and 8 times that of 2015, respectively. According to the data released by Huatong Company's tourism economic indicators in the first half of the year, in the first half of 2023, the number of domestic tourists in Youxi County was 2.7283 million, and the domestic tourism revenue was 2.133 billion yuan.

Ecology first

Green development

Of course, protecting green waters and mountains and developing all-round tourism is not always smooth.

Min Lake, a national water conservancy scenic spot and one of the five major hydropower stations in Fujian Province, was a "smelly pool" with cyanobacteria floating before it was rated as a national A-level tourist scenic spot, and the water quality was only Class V. The reason is the deterioration of water quality due to disorderly cage culture on the lake. Cage farming has good benefits and can make villagers rich; The cages were remediated to improve the water body, but the interests of the villagers were affected. How to choose? "Long-term benefits, not short-term benefits." This is the answer given by the Youxi County Party Committee and the county government. From September 2016 to August 2018, after two years of rectification, all cages were dismantled; After another two years of three-dimensional restoration, by the end of 2020, the water quality was changed from the original Class V. to Class III., and in December of the same year, Minhu Lake was rated as a national 3A tourist scenic spot.

Protect the green water and green mountains, and win the gold and silver mountains. In order to better transform ecological resources into tourism resources and drive the development of Youxi tourism industry, Youxi County has compiled the "Youxi Ecological County Construction Plan (2010-2030)" to promote "reading the development scriptures and painting landscape paintings" in a diversified manner.

Today, Youxi County is not only a pilot county for the national forest health care base; It is also a national all-region tourism demonstration area, a national tourism standardization demonstration unit, and a national leisure agriculture and rural tourism demonstration county; In 2022, it was rated as an advanced unit of the province's culture and tourism system, and in 2023, it won the third prize of the provincial "Cultural Tourism Brand Strong County Positive Incentive Project", and was selected as the first batch of provincial cultural tourism commissioner pilot counties; On July 29, it was awarded the 2023 "Charming County of Deep Breath Ecotourism".

"I think the view here is very beautiful." Norkulov Bakhriddin, an agricultural expert from Uzbekistan, said of Youxi. At present, Youxi County is relying on regional coordinated development platforms such as Shanghai, Xiaming, and Fuzhou metropolitan areas to expand the source market, create national 5A-level tourist attractions, build digital museums and four-diamond smart scenic spots, promote the cultural and tourism industry to "go to the cloud and use data to empower intelligence", and promote all-round, informatized and intelligent services to improve the tourist experience.

Through beautiful ecology, revitalized industry, and rich people, Youxi County has embarked on a road of "high value" ecological environment and "high quality" economic development. (Sanming Daily You Xi Reporter Station Wu Zhenhu)

Source: Sanming Daily