Yizhang is a city of heroes.

 

The Xinghuo Square in the county means that the spark of the South Hunan Uprising can start a prairie fire. The bronze statues of Zhu De and Chen Yi stand in the center of the square. In the south lies the Former Site of Yizhang Year-end Riots Headquarters, which is a courtyard in a style of the Qing Dynasty.

 

This ancient courtyard is now a key cultural relic unit under national-level protection, national patriotism education demonstration base and national classic red tourist attraction. There is a well in the courtyard, where Zhu De used to carry water to his horse. It is still full of spring water, bringing good fortune to the future generations.

 

In recent years, Yizhang has implemented the measures of “five batches”, including making a batch of literary and artistic works, protecting a batch of red heritage sites, building a batch of patriotic education bases, developing a batch of red cultural tourism routes and creating a batch of red rural revitalization demonstration villages.

 

Efforts have been made to promote the red culture into organs, campuses, enterprises, communities, rural areas, scenic areas and military camps, so as to prompt the in-depth integration of red culture with the construction of civilization, rural revitalization, cultural tourism and other undertakings.

 

At the same time, a three-year action plan for “red village revitalization” has been formulated and 12 “red villages” have been selected to build demonstration villages for revitalization, so as to drive industrial development with red tourism and lead tourists to accept the edification of red culture in the process of experience.

 

In 2013, Huang Fenglan returned to her hometown to start a business and established Yongxie Planting Professional Cooperative in Yizhang County. Inheriting her father’s edible mushroom cultivation technology over 30 years, she adopted the operation mode of “company + cooperative + base + farmers” to build a standardized demonstration base for glossy ganoderma and mushroom cultivation. 

 

 

Under this operation mode, the cooperative concentrates core technology to produce standard fungi packs and distributes them to growers later. It not only unifies technical standards, but also expands the production scale of glossy ganoderma and mushroom in a decentralized manner, providing more farmers with employment opportunities on the doorstep.

 

Most of the women and the elderly were left in the countryside. According to Huang Fenglan’s visits to poor households, the first batch of 10 poor women had been led to grow edible fungi in the demonstration base, and 15 poor women had been arranged to work in the base and participate in the daily management of the base.

 

Due to their diligence and dedication, mushrooms grew rapidly. These women  generated considerable income, which encouraged a greater number of poor households to participate in edible fungi cultivation.

 

By 2016, Huang Fenglan had helped 446 registered poor households, with a cumulative benefit amounting to 11.8 million yuan and over 800 jobs created. 

 

After the overall poverty alleviation in the local area, Huang Fenglan has made great efforts to promote the development of characteristic industries for rural revitalization, organize public welfare activities to relieve people’s worries and send warmth, and also train a group of apprentices.

 

In recent years, under the promotion of Yizhang authorities at all levels, a wealth of talent has been active in the fields and at the grass-roots level, providing strong talent support for rural revitalization.

 

 

Whether it is a major national model, a good grassroots person, or a caring person who helps the poor and the disabled, a string of names has formed the cultural phenomenon of “Yizhang good people”. The “city of good people” has become a beautiful name card of Yizhang.

 

There are more than 46,000 “good people” in Yizhang now, with a large number of advanced models like Liu Zhenmao (a National Moral Model), Xie Yunliang (honored in the National Moral Model Nomination Awards) and Jiang Mengnan (honored in annual Touching China Awards).

 

A number of Yizhang “good people” and organizations are playing an active role in promoting the construction of the county’s customs and civilization, the practice of core values, poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

 

The red gene and the culture of good people are integrated and symbiotic. Yizhang people innovate and seek changes, creating a colorful life and adding more vigor and vitality.

 

 

In 2021, Yizhang saw its economic growth maintain a stable and sound trend. The annual GDP reached 24.22 billion yuan, with an increase of 8.8%. The per capita disposable income of urban residents rose by 7.9%, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents went up by 10.7%.