From Guiyang to Libo, the high-speed rail takes only one hour. Libo's high-speed rail station is actually not located in the county town, but in Chaoyang Town. Driving east along Chaoyang Town's Green Gem Avenue toward Xiaoqikong, after ten minutes, you can see a high-hanging road sign - "Hongjiang International Art Village."
During the past summer vacation, Hongjiang received thousands of elementary and middle school students for educational tours, and individual visitors attracted by its reputation have never ceased coming. From being unknown to gaining fame, this village took eight years.
In 2017, after research by the poverty alleviation resident work team, they came up with the idea of "villagers renting out and transferring old houses," which received full support from the county committee and government. The villagers' old houses that had been in disrepair and uninhabited for years were opened to artist groups to create various types of art spaces. In April of the same year, the Qiannan Prefecture People's Government issued supporting policies, designating Hongjiang Village as a pilot for rural collective construction land use rights system reform.
The shaky old houses are being "revived." Hongjiang has also become one of the first villages among the extremely poor villages in the area to escape poverty. More than 60 art spaces have sprung up, preserving the residential style of local Buyi ethnic villagers while being highly personalized by artists. "Tuyu Nanju" has become an iconic building.
The changes brought by the artist community are quietly happening: elderly people who used to close their doors when seeing strangers now actively greet unfamiliar people and warmly invite them to "come eat at my house"; young people returning home is no longer an individual behavior, and construction workers are generally local craftsmen; no children drop out of school anymore. Previously, having a college student in the village was newsworthy, but this year 17 people were admitted to universities.
Old houses have activated the village's cultural heritage, and a once-silent land is regaining vitality. Capital has moved with the wind - within a straight-line distance of two kilometers from the old village, more than ten guesthouses have appeared in recent years. New buildings face the original old houses across the mountains, becoming landing spots for first-time visitors. After viewing the misty mountains, there are surprises from the old houses behind those mountains.
On September 20th, village party secretary Wei Yongjun and several other young village officials were encountered leading a delegation from Guizhou Tourism Investment Company to inspect Hongjiang. They were attracted to Hongjiang's steep terrain and unsculpted abandoned rocks, planning to create an outdoor rock climbing base.
Living in the area between the guesthouses and old houses are still the original villagers. The practical challenge facing village officials is how to establish real connections between the village's development and local villagers, creating a sustainable development model that can benefit every household; and how to retain the artist community that has made outstanding contributions to Hongjiang's development, providing faster and better services.
Wei Yongjun said: "We will keep working hard."