【Hefei Daily 】Building a Cement Road to the Valley

 “Along ten miles of Changchong, wheat seedlings are green, cauliflowers are yellow, and the hills are covered with green plants and tender tea bushes”, the song Ten Miles of Beautiful Changchong was popular all over China in the 1950s, describing the beautiful scenery of Changchong Village, Wanshan Township, Lujiang County. Yesterday, a 2km cement road was built, leading to Kongjiadawa, Changchong Village, passing 5 natural villages and 500 households.

Kongjiadawa, located between Wanshan Township and Ketan Township, connected to Wanshan-Ketan Road, cement road of the two townships, moves forwards along ten miles of Changchong. It is located in the valley on the west side of Wanshan-Ketan Road, where 80% of residents’ surname is Kong and tea is the main agricultural product of villagers. In the past, villagers must first walk on mountain roads to go outside. Nie Weiquan from Heifei Municipal Burea of Land and Resources, Temporary First Secretary of Changchong Village, said, “In the rainy days, mountain roads are very muddy, inconvenient to walk.” The road is blocked, so the valley is hidden in the remote mountains, unknown to people.

Kongjiadawa is surrounded by mountains and waters, towering trees, and hills are covered with large and small tea bushes. The villages are scattered irregularly in the valley, just like “a lost paradise”. After entering the valley, the famous couple-shaped trees are at the entrance to three natural villages, i.e. Kanxia, Shanbang and Yangshan. The two old trees are more than 700 years old, one is hackberry tree, the other is maple tree, just like an old couple standing side by side, experiencing vicissitudes, trials and hardships. Zhang Changkai, Party Branch Secretary of Changchong Village, said, “The couple-shaped trees were planted by the first ancestors of Kong Family at the turning of Yuan and Ming dynasty when settling down. Over hundreds of years, young men and women burn incense and worship in front of the couple-shaped trees when getting married in the village, praying for conjugal love, living together for life.”

In Kongjiadawa, there are more than 100 over-100-year-old trees including hackberry tree, osmanthus tree, plum blossom, pterocarya stenoptera, honey locust tree, ilex cornuta, etc. In addition to towering old trees, there is misty Xiangcha Ridge, where Yuwu tea is produced as tea “treasure”. Kong Xianghuai, an 82-years-old villager, said, “There are 1.65 acres on the Ridge, where tea bushes grow naturally. Before sunrise, the Ridge is shrouded with mist, so tea sends forth a delicate fragrance and is considered as the tea “treasures” by the villagers. Every family keeps it to entertain important guests.” The natural environment is good, so there are many centenarians in the village, and the oldest is 109 years old this year.

In the past, village economy did not develop well because of blocked road. Jiang Chunmei, a 52-year-old villager, said that tea is the main source of income of villagers, with 200 tea bushes per person, per capita income of RMB 2,000 yuan, but tea cannot be sold at a high price because of blocked road. Villagers are full of expectation for building roads, but it is difficult to achieve it on their own. In order to change the adverse condition of the village, convenient for villager travel, Heifei Municipal Burea of Land and Resources decided to help the villagers to build a cement road, leading to the villagers’ home.

Driven by Heifei Municipal Burea of Land and Resources, Goocoo Group invested about RMB 1 million yuan in building a 2km cement road for Kongjiadawa villagers, connected to Wanshan-Ketan Road, directly leading to natural villages in the valley. After half-a-month construction, the newly-built road was completed yesterday morning.