Walking into Tongyuan, a village of Haiyan, you will find clean roads, neat courtyards, clear rivers and lakes with green banks... The village tends to be increasingly beautiful in recent years. With the theme “charming and picturesque Tongyuan”, this village has been working hard to build a municipal-level culturally advanced village and improve rural civilization and living environment to make people richer, happier and safer.

Thriving and charming industries

Early in the morning, Sun Ruhao, the owner of Laosun Family Farm, came to his koi breeding base. What he did that day was to pack koi for sale. “Usually, I sell the koi to Hangzhou and Ningbo in the form of wholesale. Those koi about 2,000 kilograms is to be sold to Hangzhou today,” said he.

He came to this village for breeding the koi in 2019, and his breeding base covers an area of about four hectares. Due to his rich breeding experiences and hard work, he has reaped good benefits. “I have bred koi for over ten years, and the net profit a year is about 500,000-600,000 yuan now,” he continued, happily.

“In addition to breeding koi, some villagers also plant ‘Red Beauty’ (a kind of orange) and grapes. By optimizing industrial structures, we strongly support characteristic industries, organize agricultural sci-tech training and encourage farmers to grow new products, use new technologies, new machinery and new farming models suitable for local farmers,” said a leader of Tongyuan village.

In recent years, this village has actively developed advantageous agriculture, enhanced agricultural digitalization, promoted agricultural high-quality and sustainable development, and attracted college graduates, professionals and technical personnel to work and start businesses in this village, injecting new vitality into the development of the village.

Several days ago, a parent-child reading activity was organized in the library of Service Center of Party Members and People of Tongyuan. Children chose their favorite books on the shelves and sat with their parents to read and discuss. The children asked questions when they could not understand, and their parents answered their questions patiently, shared the contents of the book with their children and guided them to learn knowledge.

“This newly built library has a nice environment with an e-reading zone, children’s activity zone and entertainment zone. I often take my child here to enjoy reading on weekends,” said a female. According to her, parent-child reading not only makes children happy and enhances their reading interest, but also strengthens the communication and feelings between parents and children.

October 2023 witnessed the operation of the Service Center of Party Members and People which consists of a library, a rehearsal room, an exhibition hall of the village history, a gym, a culture and sports center and provides one-stop government services, fitness and culture services. Based on its warm services, perfect facilities and rich activities, this village has continuously improved public cultural service efficiency, enhancing people’s life quality.

With the continuous improvement of life quality, villagers here feel they are living a more and more convenient life. Today in the village there is a home-based elderly care service center, a parent-child activity center and a park so that people can study, enjoy home-based elderly care and leisurely life near their homes. Besides, the village has provided warmer services, established culture service teams, regularly organized artistic performances, and various cultural and sports activities to make people live a happier life.

Efficient governance

In this village you can often find volunteers help sort out garbage, maintain traffic order, clean up the debris near houses... In order to help create a civilized village, Tongyuan has continuously improved volunteer services, organized and mobilized volunteers to keep traffic order and sort out garbage to create an environment full of good behaviour. In July 2023, the village set up a “Yuan” Volunteer Service Team to strive to create a clean, tidy, orderly and comfortable living environment through diverse forces, actions and governance.

Gu Shenying is a member of the volunteer service team. As a retiree, she participates in volunteer activities of the village when she is free. “Volunteer services make me happier. It’s worth so long as my efforts can make our villagers live in a clean, tidy and comfortable environment,”said she.

With over 200 members now, this volunteer service team has organized over 20 volunteer activities in terms of environmental improvement, public welfare publicity, and visits to those in need, and has played an increasingly important role in promoting primary governance, creating a civilized environment, and establishing harmonious neighborhood relationships.

According to people’s needs, this village has constructed a two-story family banquet center in Zhennan, a community of the village, to innovate rural family banquet service models, provide safe and reliable family banquets and advocate frugality. The dining environment and facilities have been improved, and villagers can make reservations and pay the bill online, so it is very convenient.

Creating a civilized city needs everyone’s participation. Based on the grid management, this village provides services and helps for villagers, encourage the villagers to behave honestly, popularizes health knowledge, and creates an environment full of good manners, harmonious relationships, goodwill, close cooperation and joint efforts, making the whole village more  harmonious and comfortable to live in.