Clear rivers and verdant mountains benefit villages

The Ancient Weir-Home of Painting (Guyan Huaxiang) picturesque region in Lishui, a prefecture-level city in Zhejiang province, is home to crystal-clear lakes and verdant mountain ranges. It draws around 1.9 million visitors annually. The average yearly income of the villagers in the picturesque area, where more than 150 homestays employ 2,200 locals, has surpassed 43,000 yuan ($5,890). But many years ago, there were a ton of wood-processing facilities along the river, which seriously harmed the ecology. In the early years after the country’s opening-up process was announced, Yang Yaowei, 63, a carpenter who learnt the trade from his father, depended on the surrounding mountains for his income.

His colleagues quickly followed suit, moving different kinds of furniture from the area to different parts of the nation. In 2015, the pristine mountains and crystal-clear waterways of the past were vanished from the villagers’ memories under the din of screams from machinery and flying dust. Yang recalled that he made the decision to renovate his business in 2016. “The difficult circumstances forced us to make a choice — sticking to our old profession, which is polluting, or developing tourism to enrich ourselves,” Yang said. Encouraged by the beauty of the town, his 38-year-old son Yang Xiangjun expanded the plant into a homestay with a theme centered around wood products, earning about 20,000 yuan each month.

State Grid Liandu District Electric Power Co., a branch of State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power, collaborated with the local government and the scenic spot administrative committee to establish guidelines for all-electric homestays and all-electric kitchens and provided financial assistance for their development. In addition to investing in the construction of an electric-ship charging infrastructure, the power supply first constructed 20 all-electric homestays. This allowed the local port and navigation bureau and the scenic spot administrative committee to utilize the charging services for their electric ships. Zhuge Wei, who runs Zhuge Shi’s Homestay in Yantou hamlet, claimed that the green makeover had helped him.