In the Hebian village of Mengban town in south Yunnan’s Mengla County, almost every family is running guest rooms nowadays. Here, most villagers belong to the Yao ethnic group. 

Falling under the jurisdiction Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Mengla used to be poor and lack of basic infrastructures, but locals were not readily willing to change the poor conditions. 

Hebian village is home to 54 households, of which 12 were identified as extremely impoverished ones. Back to 2009, most villagers live in their own shabby houses, and they did not want to be involved into projects under the poverty-relief plan. 

To instill a sense of futurity in locals, the Hebian Party committee invited professor Li Xiaoyun to the village. Li come from China Agricultural University. Joining hands with local government, Li started a poverty-relief center to help the locals find suitable jobs and make long-term plans for development.

Based on extensive inquiries, they concluded that poverty in Hebian village is attributed to the lack of transport facilities and of sustainable income. Soon, roads and other infrastructures were built up. As a result, over 28 escaped families moved back to the village.

The local management also saw the village’s potentials in breeding livestock and developing tourism. Later, Mengla County invested in hog-cow breeding projects in Hebian.

Meanwhile, the Mengla poverty-relief center invited in designers and economists, who came to renovate shabby houses in the village into classic holiday inns. Featuring the Yao customs, diverse products were developed for tourists to enjoy leisure. 

Visiting the holiday inns at random, you’ll surely be impressed by the sound and tidy facilities. “When they first ran guest rooms, villagers did not even know to how to make the bed or set the table,” said Li Tianhong with the Mengla Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security. “So we held special training sessions on hotel management for them.”

Deng Guolin, a local accountant, added that the villagers learned about how to provide better services to visitors. Now the village is frequented by domestic visitor from other Chinese provinces, as well as by tourist all over the world.

A standard Yao room is priced at 500 yuan per day, which is equivalent to the price for a five star hotel in Xishuangbanna, and the organic dishes in the village are also a little pricier than those in the town. Anyway, most visitors are willing to try the Yao ethnic flavors. 

According to local poverty-relief office, the Hebian GDP in 2019 reached 1,703,800 yuan, with the net income averaged at 8,184 yuan. With the help of Mengla poverty-relief center, the rural tourism in Hebian village is promising.

Source: Yunnan Daily; trans-editing by Wang Shixue and Li Yushuangyue