University Graduate Returns to Revive Village

A painted walls is seen in Sanjia village in in Hebi, Henan province. [Photo/China Daily]

Grassroots official used creativity to put home on tourist map

For a girl from rural China, a dream job could be anything, except perhaps coming back to work in the village where she was born.

But Zhang Guifang, a 24-year-old college graduate, made a bold decision to return to her village in Central China's Henan province, even though she had been running a business in Tianjin for over a year.

"I didn't want to return at first, and my startup in Tianjin was making a profit, which I wanted to continue," she said.

However, constant appeals from fellow villagers changed Zhang's mind, and she returned last year.

As a young member of the Communist Party of China, she was elected Party secretary of Sanjia village in Hebi city's Shilin town in December last year.

She spent five months planning the creation of wall paintings of colorful sunflowers, wings and balloons to decorate village houses with the aim of creating what she referred to as a "rainbow village".

Her hard work and creativity paid off. For the first time, Sanjia has become famous, with pictures of the village going viral on the internet.

While explaining her concept, Zhang said that she "just wanted to help villagers so they would be able to reap the benefits".

"Sanjia is a very ordinary rural community in Hebi. Unlike some other places, it's not located near a major township or provincial road," she said.

"We've had many ideas to advance development of our village, but limited money prevented us from planning anything big."

She thought the rainbow village idea would be the most cost-efficient project she could get going. The investment needed was small, the risk wasn't too great, and it had a higher return than expected.

"We anticipated that if it brought in tourists, even if all the villagers did was sell bottles of water or handmade noodles by the side of the road, they could make money," she said.

In part, that vision has come true. In early June, 25 tourists came to visit the rainbow village to take pictures and enjoy the paintings. "The street vendors sold a lot of bottled water," she said.

But as a young village head managing 700 permanent residents, Zhang's job has not always been easy, and she has considered resigning on several occasions.

"Every day there are endless things waiting for me to do, and there are no days off, which almost led me to fall apart," she said. "I wanted to speed up development, but at first, I didn't have a clear direction or focus for my efforts."

She often cried at mealtimes for the first two or three months and felt the future looked gloomy. In March, she seriously considered giving up altogether.

"It's very stressful," she said. "I'm frequently unsure of how to settle matters sensibly, and often, what the villagers said didn't make much sense."

She eased her anxiety by telling herself that no matter how hard things were, she would hold on for another month.

Slowly, the rainbow village project boosted her confidence and led her to think bigger.

"When working toward a goal, things slowly get better," Zhang said.

"And that's my motto, to make each of the villagers work toward a single goal and gradually renew the village with new ideas and up-to-date concepts."

She began designing the rainbow village in May and planned to add more thematic sections in the near future－a Van Gogh street and a Disney street are already on the schedule.

In addition to agriculture, Zhang has attempted to create a rural study base, where students from cities can experience rural life and learn about the land and how crops grow.

Presenting the facts and clearly stating reasons are her guiding principles in running the village, and so far, she's only seven months into her five-year term as Sanjia Party secretary.

"I don't know what our village's future will be, and of course there are some things I haven't dealt with well," Zhang said.

"But I have been able to solve a lot of problems with the mentality of giving it a try, and I hope that as long as I'm here, Sanjia will proceed in a better direction toward a bright future."