Village shifts from fishing to home-rental business in eastern China

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43-year-old Ye Hongtao lives in Xinlong village in Tonglu county in east China’s Zhejiang Province. He had been fishing for over a decade. But now he’s no longer a fisherman. His county initiated a five-year-long fishing ban, which commenced in April.

Now, like many other residents in Xinlong village, Ye makes a living from his home-rental business. It brings him less profit than fishing, but he still supports the ban.

“If the water environment gets better in the future, it will be good for every one of us. I think our sacrifice will be worth it,” Ye told CGTN.

Many villagers now focus on their home-rental businesses. /CGTN Photo

And talking about better environments, Ye said he's happy to see a once dirty pond beside his house being turned into a clean one.

“People used to pour all kinds of waste water into this pond. It was so dirty and stank in summer. We're all happy the local government worked on this pond and made it clean and beautiful,” said Ye.

Ye tells CGTN how dirty the pond used to be. /CGTN Photo

Xinlong village is surrounded on three sides by rivers. And these streams all eventually flow into the Yangtze River.

In the past five years, improving water quality has been the main priority for improving the environment in Xinlong village. Local officials and villagers understand very well that the flowing water not only provides them with water for drinking and domestic use, but also affects small and big rivers connected to it.

The village has not only cleaned up its five ponds, but also made the water flow through them again by connecting them to the rivers.

The sewage treatment area in Xinlong looks like a garden. /CGTN Photo

Local sewage treatment has also improved. From the outside, every treatment area looks more like a garden.

The villagers also started garbage sorting. All these efforts were encouraged by government investment worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. Now Xinlong has become a clean and beautiful village that attracts more and more visitors. And the long-term benefits are obvious.

The riverside village of Xinlong attracts more and more visitors. /CGTN Photo‍

“We used to be a small fishing village. Now we don’t fish anymore but focus more on the home-rental business. We’ve seen how the improved environment here is bringing in more tourists. Our revenue has been increasing by around 10% annually in recent years,” said Ye Hongbo, the Party Secretary of the village.

China has many well-known beautiful cities. Now the country also wants to have more beautiful villages. Like the Xinlong village, continuous efforts have been made to improve the environment in the countryside. Xinlong is one of many beautiful cities in Zhejiang Province. The province has already become a model for its success in improving the rural environment over the past fifteen years.