A village in Nanjing is among those that have been nominated as a 2020 “China Beautiful Leisure Village”, highlighting the role that two delicious berries have played in the ecological and economic development of the city’s Lishui District.
Following the conclusion of a promotional activity undertaken by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (农业农村部), a total of 246 villages in China have been identified as the country’s most beautiful leisure villages. Among them, of only 12 in Jiangsu Province, is Shitou Stockaded Village (石头寨村) of Baima Town in Lishui.
But in this case, beauty is not only skin deep.
Shitou is located in the old revolutionary area of Maoshan, surrounded by green mountains and beautiful scenery. On account of its remote geographical location, local industrial development has historically lagged behind the rest of Nanjing.
Not any more.
Today, Shitou is making a name for itself as a centre for ecological agricultural development, specifically as a base for blueberry and blackberry production; some 353 hectares of land is devoted to the former and 127 hectares to the latter.
Therein, more than 1,600 villagers are taking part in planting and marketing. In 2019, the output value of Shitou’s “two berries” industry was more than ¥50 million, increasing the village’s average annual per-person income by an impressive ¥12,000, reported Nanjing Daily.
Also worthy of note in Shitou is Lixiang, that earlier this year also picked up a couple of awards, recognised for being a “traditional” and “characteristic pastoral” village by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
And there’s more. For beauty can also be ideological.
Some 80 years ago, Lixiang that is a part of Shitou was the southern Jiangsu command centre for the New Fourth Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. As a nod thereto, over the past few years, Lixiang has integrated various communist culture resources under the project banner, “Red Lixiang”. Now an important communist culture education base, in 2019, Lixiang received more than 300,000 tourists, generating a tourism output value of ¥15.6 million.
Once a famous, but poor village, Shitou has now blossomed into a flower, manifesting its beauty through its maturing appearance, political history and 21st Century economics.
