Germanicus
10-09-2013, 08:20 PM
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A picture taken in 2000 features forests cut down in Boduoluo village, when villagers earned their living by selling wood. Photos Provided to China Daily (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/) Decades of logging left the people of Boduoluo village battling natural disasters brought about by deforestation. Now, a shift toward eco-tourism is reviving the remote area's fortunes. Zhang Yue reports.
"This is not even the best time to visit Boduoluo village," says Liu, who provided accommodation for several tourists over the holiday. "The most beautiful time for Boduoluo is from April through August, when all the azalea on the mountain are in full bloom."
Azalea and forests give Boduoluo village beautiful views. Yet only a decade ago, local villagers earned their living by cutting down these trees.
The village, composed of the Yi ethnic group, is located in between two mountains, and is only 20 km from the old town Lijiang (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/node_1062086.htm). Due to the village's high altitude of 3,200 meters and cold weather, very few crops can survive here and for decades local villagers relied on growing potatoes for food and cutting wood for money.
"People from other villages usually do not call the village by its full name, instea (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/food/2012-04/01/content_15733724.htm)d, they mock the village as 'potato plant' because we are too poor and only have potatoes to eat," Liu recalls.
"The man tried to persuade us not to rely on cutting down trees for a living," Liu Zhengkun says. "But what will we rely on for a living? How are we going to support ourselves?"
As Yu recalls, that was a "difficult conversation".
"Because very few villagers speak Mandarin, they speak only the Yi ethnic language, we could not understand each other," Yu says.
That was when Yu met Liu (Zhengwei), who speaks comparatively eloquent Mandarin and finished his first year of middle school, a very good education for a villager born in the 1970s.
Liu met with Yu in the summer of 1998. Though Liu did not completely understand Yu's idea of ecological restoration, Liu decided Yu was a "good man" because the 62-year-old visited the village frequently to talk about his idea and helped two girls who had dropped out of school due to poverty.
To help Liu understand the connection between wood chopping and natural disasters, Yu took Liu and some other villagers to Honghe county to learn from the successful examples there.
"I gradually understood his idea that we should not cut down the forest for whatever reasons, because the forest is our natural protection from any damage and disaster," says Liu, who was among the first people to agree with Yu's idea of forest conservation.
Today, thanks to Yu and Liu's work, the village now earns most of its income by growing herbal medicine such as Maca, which Liu invited instructors to teach local people about.
For the past 10 years, Liu has worked as a middleman between Yu's organization and local villagers using Mandarin and the ethnic language to provide the poverty stricken village with a better life.
Green Watershed, which has been receiving funds from Oxfam, the Hong Kong (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/node_1059089.htm)-based foundation that works to fight against poverty, also helps to educate the villagers.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/travel/2013-10/10/content_17019241_3.htm
Reading stories from China will make you happy. China is a nice country. Chinese people are nice. Chinese culture is nice.
China is the nation that will care for the environment. The west just uses environmental issues to make profit. Our electricity prices in the west are insane.
Real change will come from China. China gets things done. China is genuine.
Anything the west can do, China can do better.
4241
A picture taken in 2000 features forests cut down in Boduoluo village, when villagers earned their living by selling wood. Photos Provided to China Daily (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/) Decades of logging left the people of Boduoluo village battling natural disasters brought about by deforestation. Now, a shift toward eco-tourism is reviving the remote area's fortunes. Zhang Yue reports.
"This is not even the best time to visit Boduoluo village," says Liu, who provided accommodation for several tourists over the holiday. "The most beautiful time for Boduoluo is from April through August, when all the azalea on the mountain are in full bloom."
Azalea and forests give Boduoluo village beautiful views. Yet only a decade ago, local villagers earned their living by cutting down these trees.
The village, composed of the Yi ethnic group, is located in between two mountains, and is only 20 km from the old town Lijiang (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/node_1062086.htm). Due to the village's high altitude of 3,200 meters and cold weather, very few crops can survive here and for decades local villagers relied on growing potatoes for food and cutting wood for money.
"People from other villages usually do not call the village by its full name, instea (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/food/2012-04/01/content_15733724.htm)d, they mock the village as 'potato plant' because we are too poor and only have potatoes to eat," Liu recalls.
"The man tried to persuade us not to rely on cutting down trees for a living," Liu Zhengkun says. "But what will we rely on for a living? How are we going to support ourselves?"
As Yu recalls, that was a "difficult conversation".
"Because very few villagers speak Mandarin, they speak only the Yi ethnic language, we could not understand each other," Yu says.
That was when Yu met Liu (Zhengwei), who speaks comparatively eloquent Mandarin and finished his first year of middle school, a very good education for a villager born in the 1970s.
Liu met with Yu in the summer of 1998. Though Liu did not completely understand Yu's idea of ecological restoration, Liu decided Yu was a "good man" because the 62-year-old visited the village frequently to talk about his idea and helped two girls who had dropped out of school due to poverty.
To help Liu understand the connection between wood chopping and natural disasters, Yu took Liu and some other villagers to Honghe county to learn from the successful examples there.
"I gradually understood his idea that we should not cut down the forest for whatever reasons, because the forest is our natural protection from any damage and disaster," says Liu, who was among the first people to agree with Yu's idea of forest conservation.
Today, thanks to Yu and Liu's work, the village now earns most of its income by growing herbal medicine such as Maca, which Liu invited instructors to teach local people about.
For the past 10 years, Liu has worked as a middleman between Yu's organization and local villagers using Mandarin and the ethnic language to provide the poverty stricken village with a better life.
Green Watershed, which has been receiving funds from Oxfam, the Hong Kong (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/node_1059089.htm)-based foundation that works to fight against poverty, also helps to educate the villagers.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/travel/2013-10/10/content_17019241_3.htm
Reading stories from China will make you happy. China is a nice country. Chinese people are nice. Chinese culture is nice.
China is the nation that will care for the environment. The west just uses environmental issues to make profit. Our electricity prices in the west are insane.
Real change will come from China. China gets things done. China is genuine.
Anything the west can do, China can do better.