Heihe: Special industries promote development, beautiful rural scenery

In recent years, Heihe City has followed the decision-making and deployment of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government on improving the rural living environment, deeply studied the experience of the “Ten Million Project”, and solidly promoted the construction of livable, business-friendly and beautiful villages. In 2023, Heihe City hosted a provincial on-site meeting to learn from the experience of Zhejiang’s “Ten Million Project” and promote the construction of livable, business-friendly and beautiful villages. Eight villages were rated as provincial livable, business-friendly and beautiful villages, and four villages were rated as China’s beautiful leisure villages. Aihui District was rated as a national key county for leisure agriculture, and Chelu Township, Xunke County was rated as a national rural governance demonstration township. The rural landscape of the city has been significantly improved.

Focus on key issues to promote rural ecological livability

Rural environmental governance is a big problem. Heihe City insists on planning guidance and optimizes the rural environment from the perspective of spatial layout. Accelerate the preparation of the overall planning of the land space of cities, counties, and towns, and prepare the practical village construction planning of “multi-plan integration” as much as possible. 357 villages have completed the planning preparation.

In Kunzhan Village, Xigangzi Town, Aihui District, there are rowans planted on the street and roses planted by the village. The ancient post station cultural industrial park at the head of the village attracts more and more tourists to check in. “31,000 flowers were planted this year. There are cleaners in the village, and harmless toilets are regularly handled.” Qian Huimin, secretary of the village party branch, introduced.

To make the countryside more beautiful, it is necessary to solve the problems of sewage treatment, garbage disposal, and toilet renovation. Heihe City has steadily promoted the “toilet revolution” in various towns and villages, adhered to local conditions, and fully used the new mechanism of “farmers’ declaration, farmers’ self-construction, government services, acceptance subsidies, and market-oriented operation and maintenance” to restore the dominant position of farmers and improve farmers’ satisfaction rate. The penetration rate of rural sanitary toilets in the city is 67.3%. Carry out the “garbage revolution” in the whole region. Improve the garbage management system and comprehensively improve the level of rural domestic garbage management. The city has built 481 garbage sorting centers and 8 garbage transfer stations, and the stable operation rate of the garbage collection and transfer system has reached 100%. Promote the “sewage revolution” in an orderly manner. Strengthen the connection between rural domestic sewage treatment and toilet renovation, reasonably determine the treatment model and technical process, treat rural domestic sewage in different areas and categories, and improve rural sewage treatment capacity. The city has completed the treatment of rural domestic sewage in 236 administrative villages, and the rural domestic sewage treatment rate has reached 41.62%, completing the 40% target task issued by the province in the “14th Five-Year Plan” ahead of schedule. Vigorously improve the appearance of villages. Highlight the key points of “six cleanings, one repair, one renovation, and one construction”, realize the co-construction of “five beauties” of beautiful homes, beautiful courtyards, beautiful villages, beautiful fashion, and beautiful hearts, meticulously improve the overall appearance of the countryside, guide farmers to develop good hygiene habits, promote normal and long-term governance, and the village cleaning rate reaches 98%.

Based on the characteristics of ethnic minorities such as the Oroqen and Daur, and the cultural characteristics of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, reclamation, and post stations in Heihe City, we actively build “Longjiang Folk Houses” pilot villages, such as the frontier Russian village in Xunke County with a strong exotic style, and the Waisandaogou Village in Aihui District with the theme of educated youth culture… One by one, beautiful villages with unique characteristics are dotted between the mountains and rivers of Heihe City, weaving a beautiful rural picture. The city has built a total of 13 provincial-level “Longjiang Folk Houses” pilot villages with unique style, excellent environment, comfortable life, prosperous industry, and strong driving force.

Injecting industrial vitality to enhance the momentum of rural development

To realize the vision of “strong agriculture, beautiful countryside, and rich farmers”, the development of characteristic industries is the only way. Heihe City has taken local policies to create advantageous and characteristic industrial clusters. Nenjiang City has been included in the national soybean and goose industrial cluster project, and Bei’an City has been included in the national soybean and dairy industry cluster construction. It has built 2 national-level modern agricultural industrial parks, 7 provincial-level modern agricultural industrial parks, and 9 provincial-level industrial towns to promote the integrated development of agricultural industries.

In order to increase the added value of agricultural products and smooth the sales channels of agricultural products, Heihe City vigorously implements brand cultivation, taking “Black Soil Premium” as the leader and “Extreme Cold Breeding” municipal regional public brand as the guide, and formulates the local standard of “Heihe Soybean” brand. Build 19 regional public brands and 52 corporate brands. Establish the “Extreme Cold Breeding” operation center, and establish more than 20 green product experience centers, with annual sales of more than 60 million yuan. Vigorously promote customized agriculture. Give full play to the advantages of “green ecology and resource enrichment”, adopt customized models such as trusteeship, adoption, membership, and crowdfunding, customize 160,000 acres of rice, fruits and vegetables, and fresh corn, customize 690,000 heads (pieces) of dairy cows, beef cattle, pigs, poultry and other breeding products, and 900 tons of cold-water fish, and it is expected to achieve an annual customized total output value of 860 million yuan.

With its northern landscape, geographical advantages, port functions, cultural heritage and ethnic customs, Heihe has unique resource endowments for the development of leisure agriculture. It has developed 28 agricultural special activities such as the Summer Holy Water Festival and Winter Fun Winter Fishing, and created a number of national rural tourism boutique routes such as the Shenglitun Village “Ethnic Village” and Aihui Countryside Park to enhance the tourist experience and increase the added value of agricultural products. Leisure agriculture receives 1.897 million visitors annually and realizes a comprehensive income of 550 million yuan. In Kunzhan Village, villager Sun Xiuling picks roses and makes rose mooncakes in the village’s industrial park, earning an additional 10,000 yuan a year. More than 30 people in the village have realized increased income through employment in the village.

Shenglitun Village, Sunwu County, on the banks of the Heilongjiang River, has built 44 Manchu-style homestays, created ethnic restaurants, theme squares, sunflower fields, rice field gardens and other tourist facilities, and held ethnic festivals such as the Daur “Kumule Festival” and “Fishing Festival”, the Manchu “Gold Award Festival” and “Strawberry Festival”, attracting more than 30,000 tourists each year. The ethnic food alone has generated a total income of more than 200,000 yuan, and the per capita income of villagers has increased by more than 1,000 yuan. “We rented the villagers’ idle houses to build homestays and improve the facilities. After the contract expires, the repaired houses and courtyards will be returned to the villagers. The villagers can also participate in the operation of homestays, achieving a win-win situation for the village collective and the villagers.” said Lin Zhigang, secretary of the Shenglitun Village Party Branch.

Carry forward the new style and righteousness to revitalize the rural customs and civilization

Heihe City vigorously carries out the creation of civilized villages and towns to make the countryside more beautiful. The new era of civilized practice sites has achieved full coverage, with 72 important civilized practice positions, 174 civilized practice points, 95 civilized practice demonstration points, and 4 provincial civilized practice demonstration points built, and 516 rural civilized pilot villages and towns have been created, with a rural civilized pilot village and town compliance rate of 82%.

Give full play to the role of farmers’ self-governance, promote effective measures such as the “points system”, “list system”, “red and black list”, and resolutely stop the bad habits of extravagance, extravagance and waste, blind comparison, etc., guide farmers to abandon old customs and habits, and comprehensively cultivate the new era of clean and upright, civilized and elegant village style.

Heihe City uses rich rural cultural activities to cultivate healthy and beneficial hobbies for farmers. Organize and carry out cultural and sports activities such as the Hemei Rural Basketball Competition, Square Dance Competition, National Games, and Four Seasons “Village Evening” Art Performances to enhance the rural sentiment and family affection between villages and villagers, build a solid spiritual home for the vast number of farmers, and improve the spiritual outlook of the rural masses. At the end of June this year, Nenjiang City organized the first village BA basketball game, township square dance competition and agricultural product exhibition to create a rural cultural carrier with influence and communication power, and promoted the deep integration of farmers’ sports and fitness with agricultural industries, rural culture, and rural governance.