Relocated villagers scaling new heights

Winners receive ducks and pigs' legs as prizes after a chess competition held in a relocation community in Congjiang, Guizhou province, in September. CHINA DAILY

On market days, 47-year-old Yang Anshun's barbershop is always full. The space is so small that customers waiting for their turn often end up on the steps outside, chatting until a chair is free.

In Guandong township, Guizhou province, the streets are packed with people. Villagers fine-tune their Dong pipa — a traditional lute — stalls overflow with seasonal vegetables and fresh meat, and rows of ethnic clothing hang on display. Even sneakers bearing the Nike logo appear among the goods.

Yang is short, lean and slightly swarthy. His hair is neatly trimmed, and he wears brown leather shoes — a barber who still takes pride in his appearance.

When the township hosts its regular fairs on dates ending in "4" or "9" on the Chinese calendar, his barbershop barely has a quiet moment. A haircut costs only 10 yuan ($1.47), but the steady flow of customers keeps business ticking along.

His shop is in Guiyun, the largest relocation community in Congjiang county.

Yang Anshun gives a customer a haircut at his barbershop in Guiyun relocation community in Congjiang, on April 16. LIU BOQIAN/CHINA DAILY

Neat apartment blocks line the area, alongside public squares, leisure facilities and the town's biggest market. The residents come from villages scattered across the county, many of them from steep mountain areas with winding roads and barren land.

"Back home, my wooden house was dark and damp. My family kept cattle in one part and lived in the other," Yang said with a smile. "When officials came to check whether our family qualified for relocation, they only needed one look to see that we were struggling."

He also spent time working in Guangdong province. "Farming at home did not bring in much money," he said.

Dengba village, Yang's hometown, is about 40 kilometers from the county seat. In 2019, his family was approved for relocation because of their difficult living conditions, and local authorities arranged a three-bedroom apartment for them in Guiyun.

He lives there with his wife and three children. Schools and kindergartens are nearby, and last year the county's largest high school was also moved to near the community.

Yang said six or seven other households from his village also moved here.

He runs two barbershops in the area and owns two mobile barber carts converted from three-wheel vehicles. Yang said he makes about 4,000 yuan a month. "I have to stay busy, and I run a few small businesses," he said. "I charge only 10 yuan because I know it is not easy for everyone to earn money."

This year, he paid for his eldest daughter to study beauty and hairstyling in Guiyang, the provincial capital, hoping that one day she will open her own shop.

Shi Laobu, from Wangdong township, is another relocated resident. Her hometown is about a three-hour motorcycle ride away.

She runs a small vegetable stall in the local market. "It was not that selling vegetables brought in too little money before," she said. "It was that there was nowhere to sell them. At home, we grew rice and vegetables, but we could only eat them ourselves."

She no longer has to farm full time. By buying and selling vegetables, she earns a modest but steady income.

Shi said the biggest change is not the 100 or 200 yuan she makes each day at the stall, but easier access to education.

Like many mothers in the community, she values convenient schooling above all else.

She has three children, all attending a primary school about 500 meters from the market. "We live here, the children go to school here, and we make money here. Everything can be done right at our doorstep," she said.

Residents of the community make zongzi (festive rice dumplings) to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in June. CHINA DAILY

Leaving poor conditions

Local officials often explain the need for relocation with a simple idea — a single piece of land cannot sustain the people on it.

Peng Jinbin, director of the provincial ecological migration bureau, said Guizhou carried out the country's largest relocation campaign. During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, the province moved 1.92 million people, about 16.4 percent of the national total, with 95.3 percent of them resettled in urban areas.

Congjiang lies in southern Guizhou, on the border with the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. More than 90 percent of its land is mountainous, with elevation differences of up to 700 and 800 meters. Many villages are isolated, difficult to reach and built on barren land.

"We have Miao, Dong and Zhuang communities among six ethnic groups here, and people came from 20 townships across the county," said Wu Jinke, secretary of the community Party branch.

"Because many residents had poor living conditions back home, construction began around 2018. By 2019, all 1,608 apartments had been assigned, and the occupancy rate is now basically 100 percent," he explained.

Guiyun has become a kind of super community.

According to local authorities, it covers about 16.73 hectares and has resettled 6,625 people. The community has two kindergartens and one primary school, while the county's largest high school is within 1 km.

For many villagers, however, leaving their old home does not mean letting go of the land. The fields they kept in their hometowns still give them a sense of comfort, especially because relatives continue to farm them.

"I still have two mu (0.13 hectares) of farmland back home, and my brother is farming it now," Yang said. "He chose not to relocate. He still has his own land, so he stays busy."

The county's largest high school was built near the relocated community in Congjiang county. CHINA DAILY

Still in the hills

In Danyang village of Qingyun township, the county seat is 80 minutes away via a rough mountain road.

Halfway up the hillside, several scattered brick-and-timber houses stand, with a few European-style villas visible in the distance. Villagers said the villas were built with money earned from working away from home.

In the distance, the mountains of Guangxi come into view, along with the wild monkeys that often appear there. Life here still moves slowly.

According to village officials, Danyang now has 112 households, after 27 moved away. Most of the young people who remain go outside the village for work, while others grow medicinal herbs such as Uncaria and isatis root.

"I actually envy those who moved to the city," said Shi Qibiao, one of the villagers who stayed behind. "They have new houses and it is easier to see a doctor. But I am old now and have grown used to village life."

When reporters arrived at his home, the 65-year-old was outside drying pieces of traditional Dong indigo cloth.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked.

"Life here is relaxed," he said. "Every few days, vendors come by car to sell daily goods. I grow a mu of grain and some vegetables myself. Every day I buy a little meat to eat, but not too much, or it would not be good for my health."

Shi Jianong, secretary of the village Party branch, said relocation began in 2017 with a simple evaluation. Households were selected if they were poor or if an entire community agreed to move together.

For elderly villagers who stayed behind, the local government also provides public welfare jobs such as forest patrollers, road maintenance workers and cleaners. Shi Qibiao, for example, works as a forest ranger and receives a yearly subsidy of 10,000 yuan.

His wife now lives elsewhere to care for their grandson, who is studying away from home. He lives alone in the large house.

Building new futures

Wu said relocation is not the end of the story.

Nearly seven years after it began, the real challenge lies not only in providing physical dwellings, but in helping villagers build stable livelihoods and adjust to new ways of life.

At Congjiang Shenyao Health Care Products, the county's largest bath-product factory, workers make herbal bath products using traditional Chinese medicine.

In the packaging workshop, they box concentrated bath liquid for shipping across the country. Most of the workers are women in their 40s and 50s.

A woman surnamed Yang, who is nearly 50, said she lives nearby and earns 120 yuan a day.

Yaoyu is a popular traditional bathing practice that involves dissolving herbal medicines in hot water, and is believed to have health benefits. It has also been developed into an industry that local officials say is being modernized to create jobs.

By 2025, the area planted with herbs used for Yaoyu bath products had reached 43,000 mu, with 47 processing companies and an industrial output value exceeding 150 million yuan.

The company's owner said hiring became much easier after villagers moved into the nearby community. Some mothers stay home to care for their children, while older residents want work close to home. The factory has created more than 300 jobs.

Even so, Wu said employment remains one of the most pressing issues for relocated communities. With a weak industrial base and limited local opportunities, many residents still choose to work outside the county.

"Most still go out to work," Wu said. "Those who stay local are mostly employed in industrial parks or in the market."

To help residents find jobs nearby, the community organizes training every quarter in electrical work, domestic services and cooking, and recommends jobs to those who complete the courses.

At the community market, many stalls are reserved for relocated households. Women sell vegetables and rice noodles, while others run grocery stores and breakfast shops. On market days, the street fills with people.

"Sometimes you can hardly walk through," Wu said with a smile.

Beyond shopping, the market has also become a place where neighbors get to know each other.

The community brings together many ethnic groups. Many older residents do not speak Mandarin and are unfamiliar with urban community life.

Wu said one of the most important jobs for local cadres now is to keep organizing activities so residents can talk to one another more and get to know one another better.

"Back in the villages, everyone knew each other," he said. "Now that they have moved together, they have to adjust to new neighborhood relationships."

"Even though the relocation happened long ago, there is still a lot of work ahead of us," Wu said.

As the market day draws to an end, the street is still packed with people.

Vendors call out, children laugh, and electric scooters whiz past the stalls. For many relocated families, these ordinary sights and sounds are gradually replacing the silence of the deep mountains they once called home.