Pingbian, Yunnan Province: Fruits of the Embroidered Miao Townships Fragrant

Pingbian County in Yunnan Province is located in the south of Yunnan Province, 320 kilometers from the provincial capital of Kunming, is an important gateway to Southeast Asia. The county has a population of 160,000, with 17 ethnic minorities such as Miao, Han, Yi, Zhuang, etc., of which Miao accounts for 68.7% of the total population, and is the only single-listed Miao autonomous county in Yunnan Province. It has a beautiful natural environment and unique ethnic customs.

Since the founding of New China, Pingbian had been in a war zone for nearly 40 years, assuming many major combat tasks in support of the front, the economic construction is a few decades later than the coastal development, and it is one of the 52 poverty-stricken counties listed by the State Council. In recent years, with the advancement of poverty alleviation, Pingbian County has made efforts to seize the opportunity for development, create special cultural tourism, and realize the development of the local economy.

Pingbian has constructed the Dripping Miao City in the western part of the county. Entering the county town of Pingbian, through the welcoming city gate shaped like a bull's horn, what comes to your eyes is the Dishui Miao City, a building of Miao characteristics, the Miao calendar square, Shepherd River ...... rich ethnic flavor makes a deep impression.

In addition to the buildings, the most representative of the Miao characteristics is the Miao embroidery. Pingbian has an Embroidery Dream Museum that displays Miao embroidery culture, which not only publicizes and displays Miao embroidery culture, but also sells Miao embroidery products and organizes various activities.

On the second floor of the museum, a group of Miao embroiderers are embroidering here. Outdoor corridor is also sitting a few embroiderers, and the background of the Miao City together to form a bright landscape. The reporter interviewed a pair of embroiderers who were exchanging embroidery skills, Xiang Yonglan (38) and Tao Yunying (48), both villagers from Ludianzi Village in Pingbian County.

Xiang Yonglan, who has just been working for a month, didn't need training to get started as her mother had taught her embroidery since she was a child and she enjoyed it herself. Before that, her family's income was low, mainly from growing bananas, pineapples and mangoes. "It's not easy to earn money." Xiang Yonglan said.

Tao Yunying has been working at the museum for more than four years, and also learned embroidery from a young age, as well as batik. Before she came to the museum, she did not have a fixed job, her husband was working in the farm, she was at home cooking with the children, the rest of the time embroidery, embroidered cloth to the county to sell money, income is very unstable. Now she earns seven to eight hundred dollars a month at the museum, which has greatly improved her family's financial situation.

The Miao people do not have their own text, through the generations of oral tradition, the Miao ancestors have been handed down thousands of years of stories, the ancestors live in the city, migration drift route, etc. were embroidered into the clothing, Miao clothing is known as "wearing the body of the epic".

In order to pass on this traditional ethnic skill, Pingbian County has also set up the Miao Embroidery Association, organized embroidery skills upgrading training, and has built four poverty alleviation workshops, eight embroidery workstations, and 20 family embroidery workshops, allowing many Miao women with embroidery skills to pick up their embroidery needles, and "home income generation".

Nine of the nine embroidery centers have been opened.

September is the off-season for tourism, but Dishui Miao City still attracts some tourists. And classmates companion to come here graduation trip of Yunnan University of Finance and Economics Yang Hai students said, very like here distinctive architectural style, national costume, the accommodation here is also very good, very modern.2019, Pingbian County*** received 1.34 million tourists, realizing the total income of 1.78 billion yuan of tourism.

In addition to cultural tourism , Pingbian County has also made great efforts to develop specialty agriculture in order to further increase the production of the masses and solve the plight of the masses who find it difficult to increase their income. According to the deputy governor of Pingbian County, Wan Ruling, originally planted in Pingbian County, bananas, pineapples and other herbaceous crops with underdeveloped root systems, it is difficult to maintain soil and water. Pingbian County has a large altitude difference, the lowest place is 154 meters above sea level, the highest up to 2590 meters, after expert analysis, according to local conditions, planting lychee at an altitude of 900 meters below the area, 900 ~ 1400 meters area planting loquat, 1400 meters above the area of the planting of kiwi this kind of woody fruits, instead of the original herbaceous crops, in the curbing of soil erosion, protection of the ecology and income generation, Pingbian County have been achieved good results. In terms of curbing soil erosion, protecting the ecology and increasing income, Pingbian County has achieved good results. Especially for lychee, after the seedlings are planted, the fruits will hang in 3 years and the fruit will be produced in 5 years, and a lychee tree can survive for 70 years if it is properly managed. By planting lychee, farmers can not only get rid of poverty, but also get rich.

Huang Xiaojiu, 54, a Miao ethnic group member of a household with a documented credit card, said his family has planted more than 2,000 lychee trees in 50 acres, including those that have been planted for three years and those that have been planted for five or six years. Before planting lychees, Huang Xiaojiu's family grew rice and corn, which was only enough for their own food and generated a meager income. "If any child in the village had to go away to school, that family would have to borrow money." Huang Xiaojiu recalled.

In 2013, when the government promoted the planting of lychee, he was worried that after lychee replaced rice and corn, in case of failure, there was no guarantee of food to eat, and he only planted 4 or 5 acres on a trial basis at first. After the first batch of lychee market, found that planting lychee is really feasible, before large-scale planting. This year, the family relies on lychee alone, the annual income has reached 150,000 yuan, from the hillside after moving down the dirty earth house, Huang Xiao-jiu family into a 130 square meters of two-story house, living conditions have greatly improved.

He Huicheng (38, Zhuang), who also moved down from the mountain, recalled life on the mountain and said, "When people are poor, their daughters-in-law can't stay." Before planting lychees, He Huicheng's family also lived on corn and rice, just enough for their own family. Sometimes to earn some pocket money, they had to use horses to hump the rice to sell it on the street a few kilometers away, and the most they could sell 100 pounds of rice for was more than 200 yuan. Because of the hard life, the previous daughter-in-law left the 4-year-old child, left him.

In 2012, He Huicheng began to try to plant litchi. Although the government issued free seedlings, and the township has experts to train, but due to the complex geographical conditions of Pingbian, different slopes, altitude, planting density and fertilization methods still need to figure out by themselves. After several years of practice, now He Huicheng has mastered a whole set of lychee planting techniques such as pruning, ring stripping, ponding, fertilizing, etc., and has taught them to villagers in neighboring villages. He said, "By telling them what I know, I can make them take the road less traveled."

At present, He Huicheng has planted 15 acres of lychee, more than 6 acres of fruit has been hung, this year rely on lychee can earn more than 70,000 yuan. After the ripening of lychee, there are dealers directly to the village to buy, do not worry about sales. He also through WeChat circle of friends sales of lychee, through express delivery, can be sold to Shanghai, Hunan, Kunming and other places, this year a year sold more than a ton. With this year's sales experience, next year he also intends to enter the "Pinduoduo" and other e-commerce platforms. After moving to a new house, he married a new daughter-in-law, the future hope that their litchi plant better, under the guidance of experts to further improve the quality of litchi.

In terms of improving the quality of fruit, according to Pingbian County Deputy County Manager Wan Ruling, the county will also establish a cold chain logistics center, the village set up a cold chain measures to ensure that from the picking to the table, fruits and vegetables, "do not fall to the ground". In addition, the county will also introduce agricultural processing enterprises, the production of juice drinks, vegetables and fruits processed products, to extend the industrial chain.

Along the creek village has 28 households 108 people, including 16 households 62 people, in 2016 all out of poverty. 2013 villagers per capita disposable income of only 2,200 yuan, 2020 reached per capita of more than 30,000 yuan, a drastic change.

After a series of poverty alleviation efforts, by the end of 2019, all 76 poor villages in the county had been lifted out of poverty, with the poverty incidence rate dropping to 1.31 percent from 55.68 percent in early 2014, and the remaining poor population had all reached the poverty elimination standard by June this year.

(Photo: Gu Siqi)