The eco-development of Guidong county

It is a remote and poverty stricken county located in the east of Hunan province; the forest coverage rate of it is 85% and its climate is fairly mild in winter and rather cool in summer; some old generation revolutionists as Mao Zedong and Zhude used to lead the revolutionary events there; and it is the issuing place of the first military regulation of “three disciplines, eight notices”.

It is Guidong county where keeps the ecological development concept to improve its green economy and now gains sound advantages on the development.

Transformation of ecological industry, development of green economy

“Though we may suffer big loss from the closing of chemical plant, we do support and protect Guidong county’s green ecology,” expressed by Zhao Zhongqiu who was the official of Guidong Xiangzhao Chemical Co., Ltd.

There are 6 chemical enterprises and 7 factories in Guidong county. In 2014, the county launched the exit plan concerned for all the chemical enterprises and figured out relative closing solution after detailed investigation and public hearing. Regarding the worries caused for the laid-off staffs of the chemical plants, the county provided free training courses for them and helped them to find new jobs via holding some job fairs. The policy was highly supported by the whole county including the chemical plants. Guidong Xiangzhao Chemical Co., Ltd was the one listed in the first batch of closing.

Once the chemical plant closed, how should the county fill up 50million yuan tax payments which is about 13% of total industrial output value of the county? The answer is ecology.

Ecology is the trump card of Guidong county, as well as the key development direction. As national demonstration zone of ecology and “the county with highest negative oxygen ion content”, Guidong county placed much more attention on the development of technology intensive and labor intensive industries with the features of “ecology” to establish low-carbon and circular green industrial system; took active actions on the upgrading of traditional advantageous industries such as photovoltaic materials, small hydropower stations, agricultural products processing, and etc. by handling technological improvement and innovative development models, which helped to remove some pollution elements; and introduced more emerging industries as new energy, new material, bio-pharmaceutical, cultural innovation, and etc. to settle down there, which became the new increasing points of local economy. In order to avoid the route of “treatment after pollution”, Guidong county implemented strict access system for the introduction of industries. It was introduced that 34 heavy pollution and high energy consumption industrial projects were refused by Guidong county in recent two years.

Improving ecological agriculture and green industry

Thanks to the unique mountainous environment, Guidong county’s agricultural products are with ultrahigh quality, so that some supreme products as Hahaniu snacks, sweet corn, pinto beans, Huangjun (a kind of wild yellow mushroom), and etc. were popular in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, even HK, Taiwan and some other foreign countries. Tea, Chinese traditional medicines, flowers and plants seedlings, and Mao bamboo are being improved rapidly in recently year and becoming more popular in domestic and foreign markets. “Decision on improving tea industry”, “Decision on improving ecological civilization and beautiful Guidong”, and some more favorable policies were issued by the county to support the improvement of industries. Followed the target of forging the original ecological agricultural products base and establishment of vertical modern ecological agricultural industry, the county kept paying balance attention on ecological advantages and development and improving some advantageous industries as “tea, pharmacy, bamboo, seedling”, and etc.

Qingquan town- a small county located in the northeastern part of Guidong county where is adjacent to Suichuan county of Jiangxi province is with 11,000 population, 90% of whom handle the tea businesses. It was introduced that every tiny piece of land is planted with tea trees. The average income of the tea park is about 10,000yuan/mu. Per capita income of local peasants is over 6700yuan/year with the help of tea industry.

Till now, 120,000mu tea base, 200,000mu Mao bamboo base, 200,000mu Chinese traditional medicines, 100,000mu seedling base, and 50,000mu vegetable base are available in Guidong county, and the slaughter rate of the herbivorous livestock is over 10,000pcs. There are also 30 agricultural leading enterprises, 279 professional cooperatives, 167 qualified pollution-free, green, and organic agricultural products, 2 Hunan provincial and above level famous brands and brand products, and 1 national geographic indication product available there. Currently, focused on the improvement of deepening processing of agricultural products and brand, the county paid great efforts on improving modern logistics and internet+ to sell local characteristic agricultural products to the big cities and supermarkets directly.

Improving ecological tourism

Dadong village of Oujiang town is famous as “cultivation base of taxus chinensis var. mairei”. Every local family cultivates this kind of plant, which does not help to increase their income, but also upgrade local environment. Many visitors from Jiangxi, Guangdong, Changsha, and other places are attracted to visit there.

“Thanks to more popular travel, our rural inns are benefited with more businesses, as well as our income,” gladly said by Zhong Hanming who is one of the villagers of Dadong village.

Every weekend, more than 100 visitors travel to Dadong village to enjoy their trips with sound strawberry, rural foods, rice wine, and etc. Now, there are 12 leisure rural inns available in the village, which helped to increase more than 40,000yuan/year for villagers. 11 towns and villages and the scenic spots of Guidong county have followed the same development mode to improve local economy. Now, there are 208 standard leisure rural inns distributed in the whole county. 

On the basis of the advantages of natural resources, the decision-makers of Guidong county proposed their development idea of improving Guidong county to be “panoramic Guidong, popular tourism”. Bamianshan national nature reserve, Qiyunfeng national forest park, Qingexian ecological tourism, Chinese Xiangsi cultural tourism development, and other projects were being improved rapidly. Cultural tourism, fitness, and other industries were being improved as the key development areas of modern service industry. All of those enable the tourists to enjoy fresh air and happy travel there. In the meantime, it placed great efforts on the upgrading and reconstruction of the downtown and rural environment.
Thanks to the operation of Pingru expressway and upgrading of transportation condition of its scenic spots, more and more tourists are attracted to visit Guidong county. According to the statistics, 2.357million visitors were received by Guidong county in 2015 with an increase of 35.6%, contributing 1.178billion yuan comprehensive tourism income with an increase of 34.8%.