East China’s Jiangsu province has made unremitting efforts to strengthen the pairing-up poverty alleviation with southwest China’s Guizhou Province by establishing a partnership between Suzhou City and Tongren City to help boost the development of the culture and tourism industry through capital input, planning, projects and publicity campaigns.
At the foot of Fanjing Mountain Scenic Spot in Tongren, Guizhou, Yunshe Village, known as the "First Village of Chinese Tujia Ethnic Group", is where the Gusu Xiaoyuan is located.
Gusu Xiaoyuan is a high-end tourism project invested by Gusu District, Suzhou City, at a cost of 4.3 million yuan.
The cultural tourism project has not only introduced good tourism experience from Gusu District, but also greatly improved the tourism quality of the entire village.
51-year-old Yang Huajun is busy working in his own homestay. As a native of Yunshe Village, he opened his homestay in 2002.
However, in the past, Yunshe Village did not attract many tourists due to lack of funds, planning and publicity.
Yang Huajun, a farmer in Yunshe Village
At that time, all the facilities were not built, so business was not good.
In 2013, with the East-West poverty alleviation cooperation getting underway, the Gusu District of Suzhou City invested 150 million yuan on the construction of the scenic spot gates, tourist trails, and introduced a number of selective homestays, which has promoted the popularity of Yunshe Village and helping more than 400 villagers get rid of poverty through tourism.
The county level city of Kunshan in Suzhou has invested 15 million yuan on the launch a selective homestays in Bijiang district, Tongren city.
An eco-friendly farm in Whanshan district, Tongren city, has provided jobs for more than 80 villagers. The new and hi-tech zone in Suzhou is responsible for the investment and operation of the farm which has received more than 30 thousand visitors since its trial operation in June.
Yang Liang, Vice Mayor, Whanshan District, Tongren /Head of Working Team from Suzhou New and Hi-tech Zone
We are building a hotel project in a bid to further enrich the tourism resources in Tongren and better meet the needs of the tourism market.
Since 2017, Jiangsu has earmarked 1.67 billion yuan to launch 1132 cultural tourism and agricultural industrialization projects in Tongren. In this way, 419 thousand needy people in Tongren have been lifted out of poverty.
