Poverty-stricken former logging community reborn as thriving eco-tourist site

Lumbering used to be the pillar industry for Arxan in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. It's common that two, and even three generations of local families were involved in the industry for living.

As the country promotes its ecological progress, logging was banned there in 2012. Instead of damaging the local economy, the ban opened a new chapter for green development.

In addition to tourism, the city also has been gaining new impetus for development from animal husbandry and eco-industries. Its new development mode with protection of its rich forest resources as its core has helped it shed the status as a national poverty-stricken area.

Yu Jiujiang, a resident in Arxan's Bailang township, is one of those who put away his logging tools and became a beneficiary of local tourism development.

Like many of his peers, Yu followed his father's footstep to work as a lumberman after graduating from junior high school in 1982. The tough life of felling trees day after day is among his most unforgettable memories.

"We left home for work before dawn. It was dark when we came back," the 57-year-old recalled.

The bitterly cold winter, which often saw temperatures plummet to minus 30 C, was the toughest time. "We worked as normal even though the snow was so thick that it could entirely bury our legs," the employee of Bailang state-owned forest farm said.

With no machines available in the early days, they not only had to fell trees with simple saws, but had to carry logs out on their shoulders, he said, as he showed calluses on his hands and scars left by logs on his shoulder and back.

As the forest logging quota became increasingly smaller before 2012, local authorities encouraged forest farm workers to start their own businesses. Yu seized the opportunity and started a horse farm in 2006 to serve tourists mainly at winter time when the township is covered by thick snow. In addition to horse riding, he also provides horse-drawn sled services to entertain tourists.

Yu didn't expect that it would be such a success. Business especially soared after President Xi Jinping visited Arxan in early 2014. During his visit, Xi praised Arxan as beautiful in all the four seasons and hoped that city tourism would boom.

Previously, Yu served up to more than 100 customers a day during wintertime. After Xi's visit, the number increased to between 500 and 600.

Yu increased the number of horses on his farm to more than 100 in 2017 to meet increasing demand and also hires at least five poverty-stricken residents when he and his family members need extra help.

While caring for the business, Yu also works as a ranger for the state-owned forest farm to watch out for people unlawfully felling trees and for forest fires near his home. The two jobs don't contradict with each other, as a ranger doesn't have much work to do in winter. "My family of four members could make up to 20,000 yuan ($2,817) a year," he said.

According to local authorities, most families in Bailang township, which has a population of about 2,000,are now involved in tourism-related work like Yu.

Bailang is just a microcosm of Arxan county. Currently, 60 percent of Arxan's population of 68,000 work directly or indirectly in the tourism industry, said Bai Feng, head of the Arxan tourism administration.

Previously, local residents herded sheep and cows, but now they raise deer and roes deer and started a fish farm, all of which can serve the tourism industry. The combination of agriculture and animal husbandry with tourism not only increased residents' income but also helps preserve local vegetation resources, he said.

From 2014 to 2018, Arxan's tourism revenue and tourist numbers more than doubled. Last year, the county received about 4.32 million tourists and its tourism revenue stood at 5.3 billion yuan ($746.8 million), according to the Arxan government.

The per capita disposable income of the city's urban residents has kept increasing at an average rate of about 9 percent during the same period and reached 27,981 yuan last year. In 2011, Arxan was listed as a national poverty-stricken area. It was removed from the list in April.

Arxan is building up an industrial pattern supported mainly by tourism and supplemented by eco-industries, plus agriculture and animal husbandry with local characteristics, said Gao Wei, Arxan's deputy mayor.

Instead of taking from nature, local government has invested more than 1 billion yuan in recent years to promote its ecological progress. While planting 20,000 hectares of trees, it also carried out soil erosion treatment on almost 15,000 hectares of land, he said.

Thanks to these efforts, the vegetation coverage rate of the city reached 95 percent and the forest coverage rate now stands at over 80 percent, according to the city government.

Arxan was listed as a national exemplary city for promoting ecological progress in 2018.