Tracing the Changes of Chongli
The upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics have not only greatly improved Chongli’s infrastructure but also boosted its winter sports industry and tourism. As a result, local economy has grown by leaps and bounds.
“If it wasn’t for the upcoming Winter Olympics, Chongli would not have been developing as fast as it is,” said Wang Sizhou, deputy secretary of the CPC Chongli District Committee in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province. In fact, the district’s rapid development not only benefits from the investment and infrastructure construction triggered by the Winter Olympics, it also benefits from the government’s poverty alleviation policies and measures, as well as the active participation of enterprises.
Road Construction Accelerates Economic Development
According to Meng Guofeng, who works for the Fulong Snow Park, the driving force of the 2022 Winter Olympics is evident. “It has cut the time for transportation in half.” When Meng and his wife moved from Beijing to Chongli five years ago because of a work transfer, “There was no developed highway network like there is today. It took five or six hours to get there from Beijing by crossing mountain roads,” he recalled.
After being identified as one of the places for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chongli has quickly rolled out road network construction. Throughout the district, dirt roads have been transformed into regular cement roads, while the construction of the Capital Region Ring Expressway connecting Beijing to its neighboring cities, known as the “Seventh Ring Road,” is progressing steadily, now reducing the drive from Beijing to Chongli to less than three hours. After the Beijing-zhangjiakou High-speed Railway and Chongli Railway is opened, the journey time between can be shortened to less than one hour.
Infrastructure upgrading has cleared the “blood
vessels” between Chongli and external traffic. The advantageous location in the capital’s economic circle and the unique ski industry cluster nearby quickly attracted a group of ski enthusiasts. The scale and quality of the skiing industry are also constantly being improved in order to attract a broader range of users. The upcoming Winter Olympics has earned the once obscure town fame, thus drawing more tourists, who are spending their holidays and buying houses here, which in the end has also greatly promoted local economy.
According to local authorities, Chongli’s total revenue is growing at a rate of nearly RMB 200 million each year since Beijing won the bid for the Winter Olympics, from RMB 440 million in 2015 to RMB 1.15 billion last year – the first time the district’s total revenue has exceeded RMB 1 billion and the general public budget revenues exceeded RMB 500 million. Driven by the Winter Olympics, Chongli’s economic structure has continued to optimize.
Improved Living Conditions
The Winter Olympics are an important factor to be reckoned with, yet developing the winter sports industry is not the only way to lift the district out of poverty. In 2017, Chongli already started its rural renovation project to rebuild 57 villages in light of modern development needs, taking into consideration both international standards and local flavors.
Shangwopu Village is located 10 kilometers northeast of the Chongli District Government. In the past, trapped in poverty, many young people chose to leave their hometown to look for jobs elsewhere. Of the village’s registered 306 residents from 130 households, the permanent population is only 119. Since 2017, it has taken Fulong Holdings two years to transform Shangwopu into a fully functional modern new village.
Each morning, Gao Junsheng, a resident of Shangwopu New Village, drives his tricycle to the county seat to replenish supplies for his store that
just opened last May.
“I am 60 years old. When I was young, I left this village to work in other cities. Now I live in a new house and our living conditions are steadily getting better day by day. So I opened the store with my wife,” said Gao. While he was talking, his wife Shi Xiuqin was already busying herself with the daily tasks of running a convenience store.
The regular and frequent patronage by local villagers have brought sizable income to the Gaos, more than that he could earn by working away from home. Shi is also very happy to see her husband helping out at home.
“My second daughter and her son came home from the county seat this morning. I wouldn’t have dared to let them live at our home last year,” Shi said, and added that they moved from their old house to the new one in March. Their old drafty house had no heating even in winter. “The first three months of winter are the most difficult for us,” she said. Not only does the new house have hot water and heat, but they can take showers as well. “For my daughter and grandson, there is now no difference between living at home and living in the countryside.”
Shi came from a neighboring village, and married Gao in 1981. “When we first got married, we lived in a cave dwelling in the mountain,” she said. “Because of poverty and barren land, there was not enough food to eat. It was often the case we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from.”
Their life improved in recent years. They moved out of the old cave dwelling where they had lived for many years and moved into a brick-clad adobe house which they built by themselves. “In fact, we added a layer of bricks to the adobe, but it was still cold in winter.” The couple worked hard in farming the land and went out for work to support their daughters’ studies.
“If it weren’t for the Winter Olympics and the country’s poverty alleviation policy, who would have expected we could live in a house like this and make money on our doorstep,” said the old couple gratefully.
“It is days like this that give us something to look forward to.”
“The new dwellings have all the functions and amenities of urban buildings, including living rooms, bedrooms, running water, toilets, heating, hot water, solar energy, and cable TV,” said Wang Yongfeng, manager of business operations department of Fulong Holdings. Wang said that Fulong aimed to help people in the village enjoy the same living conditions as people in the city do.”
Hou Guibing, also 60, said he plans to move into a new dwelling next year – one of the gray houses lined neatly along the dirt road, sticking out in sharp contrast to the dilapidated adobe houses nearby. Thanks to government subsidies, villagers can move in without spending a penny, and what they have to pay is half of the monthly electricity bill.
“If it weren’t for the Winter Olympics and the country’s poverty alleviation policy, who would have expected we could live in a house like this and make money on our doorstep.”
Changes in Development Patterns
Improving villagers’ living conditions is only one of the tasks of poverty alleviation, said Wang.
In addition to this, county-level cadres will be stationed in the village to help impoverished households analyze and find the root cause of their poverty.
The government will provide small loans to support the poor households who lack funds, while for those who can work but cannot find a job, the
government will help them look for work. For those with little education and poor employability, they are encouraged to participate in basic work of local industries nearby such as forest protection, fire prevention, and village cleaning. For the poor households who have lost their primary family wage earner, a minimum social security policy shall be implemented. Then for the residents who are poor due to disabilities from illness, the government will further popularize the medical insurance system, and thus eliminate absolute poverty by implementing the above measures.
“One of our greatest strengths in the process of fighting poverty is pooling resources together to address major problems. We all share a common goal and work toward that goal,” said Wang.
Shangwopu Village is a vivid example of how the Chongli local government pooled together local resources to address major problems. In order to solve the funding problem, Chongli introduced social capital to participate in targeted poverty alleviation, and effectively established a model of poverty alleviation and development on a macro scale coordinated by the government, market, and society.
“The living environment has changed, but it needs to be supported by powerful industries, so that we can truly revitalize the countryside, solve the income problem of more villagers, and bring back the young people who go out for work,” said Guo Meihong, vice president of Fulong Holdings operations.
One of the major problems that needs to be solved urgently is how to ensure villagers’ stable income and
Through Chongli government’s support of the local private sector, mutual trust between the government and enterprises facilitates the multi-win situation.
realize sustainable economic development in Shangwopu based on the improvement of their living environment.
According to Guo, Zhangjiakou is the starting point of the ancient trade road Haalgan-khuree Route, leading to Khuree (now Ulan Bator), dubbed as the northern Silk Road. Since ancient times, Chongli has been the place through which business flows. “To develop its modern economy by virtue of the ancient commercial culture is a very important breakthrough for us to drive the local rural development,” said Guo, adding that digging into the regional traditional culture is the best way to develop a village like Shangwopu.
“We have redeveloped the traditional beancurd workshops, oil workshops, powder workshops, and mills that have a history of several thousand years, so that the farmers in Shangwopu can return to their traditional manual workshops,” said Guo.
“In this way, we have firstly inherited and protected traditional craftsmanship; secondly, we created an integrated development chain through technical supervision, professional marketing, and packaging, so that old skills can have new economic value. This in the end helps farmers find jobs, increases their income, and develops the rural economy.”
Through Chongli government’s support of the local private sector, mutual trust between the government and enterprises facilitates the multi-win situation. The construction of affordable housing is only the first step for the district in developing the local economy by helping enterprises. Guo said that in the future, they will also transform farmers’ skills into a source of productivity by tapping into Fulong’s customers and management.
“Shangwopu Village has a long history, so we plan to turn it into a folklore village, integrating tourism, accommodation, sightseeing, vacationing, and food. The folklore village, complementary to the ski resort, can spur other consumption, allowing tourists to eat, play, go sightseeing, and have fun here,” she said. C