How Can the Popularity of the Changbai Mountain Scenic Area Radiate to Villages? Yang Lina Has Blazed Her Own Path of Exploration—

Deepening Rural Tourism to Drive Villagers' Income Growth (People's Stories · Focus on Rural Entrepreneurship)

Yang Lina is the chairwoman of the Guixin Homestay Cooperative in Guangdeng Village, Dongcheng Town, Helong City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, and a National Pioneer of Rural Revitalization for Youth. To date, she has helped more than 2,000 surrounding households find employment and has distributed cumulative dividends of over one million yuan to the village collective.

"Pound the rice cake, pound the rice cake, pounded early in the morning, rising higher year after year." Early on a weekend morning, driving into Guangdeng Village, Dongcheng Town, Helong City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, one finds a cement road that is not especially wide, with homestays neatly arranged on both sides. In a farm courtyard, Yang Lina, chairwoman of the Guangdeng Village Guixin Homestay Cooperative, is making the specialty food rice cake with several tourists. "The rice is being transplanted now; when it joints and heads in June and July, our village will have even more visitors," Yang Lina told the reporter.

"People come out to travel—what is there to see in our village?" In 2011, when Yang Lina first came to Guangdeng Village to work in tourism, some villagers found it hard to understand.

"In my view, rural tourism has broad prospects." Yang Lina had her own answer in mind. By integrating distinctive resources such as folk customs and homestays to attract visitors, the village received more than 500,000 tourists in 2023. Yang Lina not only runs the cooperative impressively but has also set about operating an online agricultural products business, increasing her own income while leading villagers to prosper together. On the road of rural entrepreneurship, Yang Lina is always thinking.

　　"Why Can't Our Village Attract Tourists?"

After graduating from junior college, Yang Lina ran a travel agency in Yanji City with an annual income of more than 100,000 yuan. "We could receive nearly 200 tour groups each year—Changbai Mountain is a popular attraction, after all." Yet, having grown up at the foot of the mountain, she often felt regret: at that time, tour itineraries mainly involved climbing the mountain in the morning and rushing to Yanji, Changchun, and other places in the afternoon. "In many southern cities, there are plenty of places to visit around a single attraction. Why can't our village attract tourists?"

How can the popularity of famous mountains and great rivers radiate to surrounding villages? With this question in mind, Yang Lina began to entertain thoughts of starting a new business while handling tour groups. In early 2011, she closed her travel agency in the city and, with more than 200,000 yuan in savings plus money borrowed from friends, came to Guangdeng Village to get busy. While overseeing the renovation of a specialty restaurant on one hand, she pitched herself to travel agencies on the other: "The route from Changbai Mountain to Yanji passes right through this village; tourists can rest their feet at noon and also taste local specialty food." She grew much thinner from the busyness, yet a former peer poured cold water on her: "If you want to eat, wouldn't it be better to go directly to a restaurant in the city?"

Those words actually awakened Yang Lina. Beyond food, local folk customs, distinctive houses, and the like are the tourism resources more worth tapping in a village. So Yang Lina decided to take tourists on free tours of the village. "We just earn money from meals; your travel agency comes to rest, and after the guests eat they can visit one more attraction—give it a try." Yang Lina tried hard.

In June 2011, Yang Lina welcomed her first tour group. She went to the market herself to select rice cakes and kimchi, personally simmered chicken soup in an iron pot, and carefully planned the tour route... For 13 tourists, a 600-yuan group meal, and a two-hour rest stop, Yang Lina prepared for two full days. "That village is actually quite nice." Gradually, on some travel agencies' feedback forms, people began to mention Guangdeng Village in a sentence or two.

By the time she had been in business for a full year, Yang Lina had established cooperative relationships with more than 50 travel agencies, with revenue of nearly 600,000 yuan. On the busiest day, more than 1,000 tourists came to the village. Yang Lina still remembers that the village's former Party secretary stood on crutches by the dirt road at the village entrance, watching the tourists come and go, and gave her a thumbs-up. By the beginning of this year, Guangdeng Village had attracted more than 500 travel agencies from various places to cooperate.

　　"Wouldn't It Be Even Better If We Could Get Tourists to Stay the Night?"

"A lot of people isn't necessarily good either." Despite the seemingly booming business, Yang Lina had her own difficulties: catering profits were thin, and villagers found the noise annoying. Seeing the number of tourists increasing year after year, in 2013 Yang Lina began to think about running homestays. "The company increases income, and villagers earn rent." However, it took her another two years to truly make this path work.

Diagonally across from the village's farming canteen had once been an idle, empty house overgrown with weeds. Yang Lina went to ask the owner, Brother Jin, whether he was interested in renting it out: "2,500 yuan in rent per year; we'll handle the cleaning and renovation—all of this will be written into the contract. What do you think?" Brother Jin said nothing and just shook his head.

Struggling until the end of the year and hitting walls repeatedly, she thought, "I might as well go back to the city and open a travel agency." Yang Lina did not understand why and felt somewhat discouraged. An elderly villager in the village pointed out the reason: "Our place isn't like the city—how would they know what tourism is or what a contract is? They're afraid you'll cheat them out of the house."

"Even though it's also entrepreneurship, sometimes urban experience really doesn't apply to rural areas." Yang Lina suddenly understood.

So, in addition to thinking about how to serve tourists, Yang Lina tried hard to integrate into the village.

In Guangdeng Village, after meals and tea, people like to beat drums and dance in their own courtyards, which frequently draws tourists to stop and watch. At the end of 2014, Yang Lina accordingly set up a dance team and invited villagers to perform for tourists—half an hour per show, with each performer paid 50 yuan.

At first, as soon as a performance ended, Yang Lina paid everyone in cash. Over time, some villagers took the initiative to say: "Girl, go entertain the guests; just pay us together after 30 performances." Everyone's instruments and costumes also changed from being carried back and forth for each performance to being kept at the restaurant.

Feeling that the time was ripe, Yang Lina raised the matter of renting houses again: "Wouldn't it be even better if we could get tourists to stay the night? We could also perform a few more shows." The dance team leader, Park Zhonglie, was the first to nod: "I don't know what a homestay is, but you probably won't cheat people." At the end of 2014, the renovation of six homestays in Guangdeng Village was completed.

"Building trust takes time, but once trust exists, many problems are easily solved." Recalling this experience, Yang Lina spoke with determination. In her view, the dance team enriched the tourism content and also got villagers to start interacting with tourists, and more importantly, it helped her integrate into the village. "Everyone supports me—that is meaningful," Yang Lina said.

In 2018, the village collective stepped in to help Yang Lina survey vacant houses and sign contracts with villagers. That year, 60 homestays were completed in a concentrated effort, with an occupancy rate of 80% during peak tourist season. The dance team also grew from the initial six villagers to more than 30, and the pay for a single performance rose from 50 yuan to 100 yuan, with 130 performances in the busiest year.

"The guests just checked out, and we haven't had time to clean up yet." Following Yang Lina into a homestay, beside the stone path in the courtyard, flowers and plants interweave; indoors there are both wooden floors and a traditional farm kang bed. "Hard to imagine, right? This is Brother Jin's house from back then."

　　"I Work Alongside Everyone So We Can Eat Well—and Eat Well From Tourism"

"Wouldn't it be fine to just renovate homestays steadily and host guests? Why spend money on an online store?" Just as the village's tourism industry was developing vigorously, Yang Lina wanted to sell rice online, which some people found quite puzzling.

But for Yang Lina, the integration of rice and tourism was something she had been pondering for a long time. Guangdeng Village is located on the banks of the Hailan River, with a rice area of more than 7,000 hectares, and basically every household has farmland. Rice study tours, a small train beside the rice fields... Without affecting cultivation, Yang Lina began to develop rice-field tourism.

"Are you selling rice? We'd like to take some with us," tourists asked.

"Would you like to buy some rice? Grown ourselves," villagers promoted.

The goods were good, but the villagers did not understand packaging and sales; a jin of rice sold for 3 yuan in plastic bags, with mediocre sales.

Yang Lina set about cooperating with villagers in business operations, determining planting standards, negotiating purchase prices, and distinguishing different grades... Today, rice in the online mall sells for up to 32 yuan per jin. "Although tourists have left the village, they can still be customers and continue to repurchase." In recent years, the now-famous online mall has added rice wine, ginseng, and kimchi. To date, the online mall's cumulative revenue has exceeded 8 million yuan, with rice sales exceeding 600,000 jin.

Nowadays, 6,500 yuan from dance performances each year, 5,000 yuan in rent, 4,500 yuan in land transfer fees... Villager Brother Park, who had just finished a performance, counted on his fingers the prosperous days. "This isn't much—households that work at homestays or jointly run rice-field tourism earn even more!" Brother Park said.

As Guangdeng Village's tourism industry thrives day by day, Yang Lina has again set her mind on driving the development of surrounding villages. In 2019, she began laying out tourism in another village in Erdaobaihe Town, Antu County, Yanbian Prefecture. "That place is closer to the mountains, mainly developing picking and ice-and-snow projects, which can form differentiated development with Guangdeng Village." Last year, that village received more than 320,000 tourists, and the per capita annual income of villagers increased significantly. With the village now bustling, many young people even return to the village during holidays. "In the past, this was a rare novelty," Yang Lina said.

In 2021, Yang Lina was named one of Jilin Province's first batch of Top Ten Outstanding Talents in Rural Revitalization. In 2023, she received the title of National March 8th Red-Banner Pacesetter and was named a "National Pioneer of Rural Revitalization for Youth" by the Communist Youth League Central Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

"I work alongside everyone so we can eat well—and eat well from tourism," Yang Lina said. This is exactly the simple idea that has always been in her heart.