Beautiful Eshan She Ethnic Township in Tonglu, Hangzhou Plays the Music of Common Prosperity

In April, Eshan She Ethnic Township in Tonglu County, Hangzhou City, East China's Zhejiang province, received a series of good news: the Index System for Common Prosperity of Ethnic Villages, China's first standard on common prosperity of ethnic villages, was successfully approved; and Eshan Ethnic Village  and Common Prosperity Alliance of Eshan Ethnic Villages were respectively listed among the first batch of the city's Common Prosperity Villages and Common Prosperity Alliances released by Hangzhou Leading Group for Rural Revitalization.

Natural Scenery in Eshan

The selected Common Prosperity Alliance of Eshan Ethnic Villages consists of three ethnic minority villages, namely Eshan Village, Xinfeng Village and Longfeng Village. The alliance has stuck to holistic planning and progress to develop distinctive local businesses and build brands with the characteristics of the villages. Meanwhile, it has innovated and explored various ways to integrate the existing unused space through putting into use the existing resources and vacating homesteads, so as to increase the average yield of land, and further improve the sources of tax revenue, industry, space, green development and other factors, enabling more people in She Ethnic Township to start a business and get employed in the township.

In recent years, through building a province-level special base for forestry and a model eco-township of Hangzhou, Eshan has vigorously developed cash crops such as phyllostachys prominens and wild rice stems, embarking on a path of green development that respects Eshan's reality and establishing a large number of production bases of local agricultural products like phyllostachys prominens, chickens, wild rice stems, and high mountain tea. These "green and fresh" agricultural products with distinctive local features gradually constitute the leading industry of Eshan She Ethnic Township.

Eshan's Special B&B

In 2021, Eshan Ethnic Village attracted a total of more than CNY 40 million of social capital and achieved a tourism revenue of more than CNY 20 million, with the collective income of the village exceeding CNY 2 million and the disposable income of villagers CNY 30,000. The village has known how to convert resources to industries and assets to capital, allowing more people in She Ethnic Township to start a business or obtain employment in the township through incubating businesses and boosting popularity. (Text/Photo by Ying Zhiyuan and Shi Hao)