China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Village revival
An ethnic Korean settlement aims to make history again
‘When we came here in 1954, there were willows everywhere. There was no arable land in the village because the population had left as a result of extensive warfare,” recalled Piao Mingchun, an 80-year-old ethnic Korean, who lives in Hongqi village, a Korean settlement in the northeastern province of Jilin.
“Responding to State appeals for land reclamation, we were part of the second batch of immigrants from Helong city in the province to clear forested land in the outlying areas.
“It was not easy at the beginning. The place was abandoned, with overgrown grass and run-down houses left by earlier generations of villagers and the Japanese army,” he said, adding that there were few tools to plow the land.
“We didn’t have enough cattle, so humans with iron shovels were the main workforce for planting. However, despite the laborious work, yields were pretty low.”
Blood and tears
The Korean Peninsula’s close proximity means the provinces of northeastern China have long been attractive to immigrants. Historically, farmers leading poor lives in the peninsula moved to neighboring territories, such as Jilin. By 1918, the number of Korean immigrants in China’s northeastern provinces was 360,000, according to a statement by the Jilin government.
Hongqi, a village in Antu county, Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, is home to 86 households of 326 people. More than 80 percent of the residents are members of the Korean ethnic group.
“Actually, the village, previously called Tribe No 2, was founded by the Japanese army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45),” said An Xuebin, a member of Antu’s political consultative committee, who researches Chinese culture and history.
“Around 1939, the Japanese army used the area around Changbai Mountain as a military base, and forced 80 poor households from the Korean Peninsula to move to Autu and reclaim the land by planting rice. Conditions were really harsh, because the people were oppressed and short of food and clothing.”
According to the county’s official history, Tribe No 2 was liberated around 1945, but it struggled economically throughout the 1950s as a result of the scars left by the war. In 1958, it was renamed Hongqi Brigade, referring to the smallest administrative unit for villages, and became Hongqi village in 1985.
Piao said life never seemed to improve, no matter how hard the inhabitants worked.
“In the 1950s, five people in my family worked on the farm — my sisters and brothers, and my father — but we only had 3 jiao left at the end of the year,” he said, referring to a small denomination coin.
The turnaround came in 1981, when Piao and two other villagers became the first residents to rent land from the brigade, which still administered the village.
“The land and all the crops grown on it were the collective property of the village back then, which meant the residents had little incentive to work hard. Piao was one of three villagers who took the lead to rent the land. Even after submitting a prescribed amount of produce to the brigade, they could each get more grain as long as they worked hard,” said Zhao Zhefan, the village Party secretary.
Piao was excited when he recalled the contract: “My family was highly motivated after I rented 8 mu (0.5 hectares) of land from the brigade. The yield grew to 750 kilograms per mu from 600 kg in just one year, and we made a profit of 1,000 yuan that year.”
The villagers began to live better lives by developing folk tourism, benefiting from the increasingly prosperous tourist industry around Changbai Mountain that started in the late 1970s.
Devastating floods
However, the village, which was located close to a river, often flooded, which hampered the development of both agriculture and tourism. Eventually, after a devastating flood in 1987, the entire village was relocated to stand alongside a nearby road.
“Back then, the road, which started in Mingyue town, was the only way to Changbai Mountain, and we hoped the village could be developed into a stopping point for travelers on their way to the mountain,” said Jin Zhenguo, who was director of the Antu urban construction and environmental protection committee at the time and supervised the move.
The relocation, which started in the late 1980s, was completed in 1992, and 98 households moved into new houses with the aid of government support.
“The relocation program made Hongqi stand out from the other ethnic Korean settlements in the prefecture,” said An, the researcher.
“The houses built at the time combined the traditional Korean style with modern features, appealing to visitors’ tastes.”
By the mid-’90s, the growing popularity of Changbai Mountain saw folk tourism become a mainstay of the village, which emphasized its traditional Korean food along with modern homestays.
“The village was busy receiving travelers — cars were everywhere in the village committee’s yard. There were domestic visitors and also travelers from Japan and South Korea,” recalled resident Zheng Jingshu.
However, in July 2010, Hongqi’s tourism boom was destroyed by a flood that resulted in all 106 households being inundated and 26 left uninhabitable.
Farmland and tourism-related infrastructure, especially the section of road that ran to Changbai Mountain, were also destroyed, resulting in a loss of almost 38 million yuan to the village.
Jin Meiling, who was 18 at the time, saw her family home destroyed by the deluge.
“I was frightened when we lost our house, but fortunately, all my family survived,” she said. “That year, I decided to quit my job in Yanji, the prefecture’s capital, to help my parents rebuild our house.”
The damage to the transportation infrastructure meant the village was no longer a suitable stopping place for travelers heading to Changbai Mountain.
“Ease of transportation was the village’s biggest advantage after the relocation program, but the road connecting Hongqi and Changbai Mountain was almost entirely closed after the floods,” said Yang Songfeng, director of Antu’s culture and tourism bureau.
“It took four years to rebuild the houses and roads. The landscape changed completely during that time as other Korean villages sprang up.”
Things began to improve in late 2010, when Chen Shaoke, a businessman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, decided to restore Hongqi’s reputation as a tourist attraction.
He planned to do that by making full use of its traditional advantages, such as Korean food and musical performances.
“Hongqi was actually one of the first villages in China to develop rural and folk tourism, so those good traditions and culture can be revived. Also, the government has introduced preferential policies to rejuvenate the village,” Chen said.
To date, he has invested about 9 million yuan ($1.3 million) to develop the village, including building a large parking lot, a performance center and a garden where visitors can pick lingzhi mushrooms, which can be eaten, and are also major ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine.
Resurgent tourism
“We cooperate with 327 travel agencies nationwide, in places such as Shanghai and Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces,” he said.
In 2011, just one year after the devastating flood, 175,000 trips were made to the village, while the number rose to 450,000 last year.
Jin, the villager whose family home was destroyed, has worked as a guide for Chen’s tour company since 2013.
“I’ve seen the huge change the village experienced after the flood. Tourism has reinvigorated this once-dying village,” she said.
“Last year, I received about 200 visitors per shift. I think tourism is a promising industry, and our village is fully prepared to seize opportunities for prosperity.”
However, Chen said tourism is being hampered by a number of problems.
“The road through the village is no longer the only way to get to Changbai Mountain, while a newly opened high-speed railway goes to the Changbaishan National Nature Reserve. We are facing a challenge attracting visitors,” he said.
“Accommodations are another headache. We cooperate with 36 households, who can offer lodgings for visitors when needed, but conditions in the homestays have to be improved to appeal to more tourists.”
Yang, Antu’s director of culture and tourism, said the local government is making great efforts to build the village into a must-see attraction for people heading to Changbai Mountain, rather than just a stopping point.
“We are planning to build a campsite for independent travelers to facilitate their trip to the village. We will also offer Korean culture and customs,” he said.
“The village will be a key point in the future ‘one-hour’ tourism circle of Changbai Mountain,” he added, referring to moves aimed at ensuring that every major tourist spot around the mountain will be accessible within a maximum of 60 minutes.”