Sustainable Ya Mountain Programme

Challenges and Objectives

Ya Montain is located in Dalong Village, Dayu County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, which is rich in tungsten ore. In the 1980s, there were thousands of employees at the peak of Dalong village mine. Dalong Village became known as a wealthy village. A large number of foreign businessmen and migrant workers gathered in Dalong Village, and there were more than 5,000 people at that time. However, with the depletion of the mine, the cessation of mining, coupled with geological disasters, Dalong village began to be in decline, and the villagers also began to move out. By 2005, the resident population of Dalong Village had less than 300, with dilapidated houses, barren farmland, mostly adobe houses, single industry development, and the villagers' economic sources were mainly from bamboo cutting and farmland cultivation, with an annual per capita income of less than 1,000 yuan.

In 2007, Xiangyang Tang, a young man from Dalong Village, returned to his hometown to start his own business and set up Dayu Zhangyuan Ecological Tourism Co., Ltd (briefly called “Zhangyuan Company”). With the support of the county party secretary, he cooperated with the state-owned Ya Mountain Forestry Farm and Dalong Village Committee to develop Ya Mountain ecotourism resources. The goals of this programme are: to change the backwardness of the village; to restore the ecological environment damaged by mining; to explore the economic value of local natural ecological resources; to create employment opportunities and attract people to return to their hometowns to start their own businesses; to develop rural collective economic, increase villagers’ income, and to lead villagers to take the road of common prosperity.

Collaboration Partners and Roles

Revitalisation Activities

The Ya Mountain Programme has been launched since in 2007. It conducted a wide range of rural revitalisation activities to promote eco-economic transition, increase villagers’ income, and protect the ecological environment in Dalong village.

In order to develop eco-tourism, Xiangyang Tang created Zhangyuan Company in 2007 and got the development right of Ya Mountain area for 50 years after negotiating with the local county government. Because Ya Mountain, which has the nickname of “Natural Oxygen Bar”, preserves the natural scenery of the original ecology, with the natural clusters of waterfalls and a forest coverage rate of up to 90%. The local government provided the policy and project funds to improve the infrastructures, including the road, public park, electrical network and so on. Zhangyuan company took the lead and made a demonstration to turn “lucid waters and lush mountain” into “invaluable assets”, through developing Ya Mountain senic area, introducing an admission revenue system, creating original ecological restaurant, investing in high-end hotels, and encouraging villagers to develop ecological agriculture and homestay.

During the development of Ya Mountain senic area, villagers become richer and more confident than before. Xiangyang Tang adhered to the priority of recruiting local villagers and created different job opportunities for them, especially for poor households. For example, in 2015, Zhangyuan company offered 2,000 jobs including scenic cleaners, waiters, security guards and other positions, with a monthly salary of more than 1,400 yuan. Also, Zhangyuan company cooperated with Dalong village community to train villagers in a variety of survival skills, including practising eco-agriculture, improving cooking skills, managing homestay, being tour guide, and learning to play musical instruments and sing songs. Xiangyang Tang explored the development model of “Three Changes, Three Incomes”. That is to change villagers into workers, shareholders of Zhangyuan company, or bosses of starting their own business; to make villagers earn salary as a worker, get share dividends by investing their resources such as the land, houses, and forest in the company, and collect rents through housing rentals.

In order to protect the ecological environment, the local government and the community cooperate to improve the infrastructures of scenic spots, establish mining parks and establish strict environmental protection regulations. Dalong village community encouraged villagers to participate in the protection of forests and animals in Ya Mountain area.

Revitalisation Outcome

The Ya Mountain programme has made Dalong village transit to eco-economy, including develop eco-tourism and eco-agriculture. Zhangyuan company created by returning young entrepreneur Xiangyang Tang, develops very successfully and has increased more than 600 fixed job positions and more than 2,000 seasonal job positions per year. Workers’ income is above 3,5000 RMB per year.

Until 2022, the programme has driven 1,760 villagers to increase income, and indirectly driven about 10,000 villagers in seven surrounding towns to increase income. The collective economic income of Dalong Village has increased from 123,000 yuan in 2007 to 1.7 million yuan in 2021.

Some young people return to Dalong village to create their own careers. The population of Dalong Village increased by over 1000 people between the year 2007 and the year 2021. The number of cultural activities in villages has increased. The village has become more vibrant and villagers have become more confident. The relationship between villagers and cadres, as well as between villagers, has been improved. More and more villagers are adopting ecological farming methods. The phenomenon of cutting bamboo and trees almost did not happen.

The development scale of Ya Mountain tourism resort is expanding, and it also has driven the whole Dayu County transit from relying on mineral resources development to the development of eco-tourism economy. In 2022, Ya Mountain tourism resort received a total of 2,135,400 tourists throughout the year, and realised a total tourism revenue of more than 190 million yuan.