COLORFUL paintings capture the eye from the minute one sets foot in Linglongwan, Shengfeng Village. They can be seen on the white walls of the buildings that meander through wetland parks and along the banks of the rivers in the village of Youchegang Town, Zhejiang Province. The paintings are made by local farmers and have become a distinctive feature of Linglongwan. Ding Qiaoying usually spends two hours a day creating her paintings in the art center, situated right at the entrance of Linglongwan. She usually comes to the center after she finishes her family chores. “In the beginning, we learned to draw things related to our lives with guidance from a teacher, but now, we are often given a theme around which to create our paintings,” the 67-year-old says. Her artistic creations are mainly a result of her own experiences and imagination. One of her paintings features boats packed in a river, filled with a cornucopia of goods. “It’s a depiction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and those boats are from my childhood memories,” she says. Ding says the reason why she can concentrate her mind on artistic creation is the significant improvement of her life. Living conditions were once much tougher. “There were only mud roads,” she recalls. Now, the whole village has been given a face-lift, with well-paved roads and spacious buildings. “It’s very nice to live here and I don’t have to worry anything, especially now I’m retired,” Ding says. Years of practice in creating farmer paintings have won her several awards, including the occasional first prize in locally organized contests. Ding is one of about 80 local residents who engage in the art form, which the local authority has made a point of encouraging over the past few years, which has given the whole of Shengfeng Village an artistic atmosphere. Some of the painters have now been assigned to teach the art form in local primary schools, says Miao Huixin, who Time magazine named as one of the “10 outstanding Asian artists” of 1998. Miao says his life changed because of farmer paintings, which was what led him on his artistic career path. He has practiced the art form since the 1980s and held exhibitions in numerous countries, including France, the United States and Japan. “I hope that farmer paintings will continue as always,” Miao says. In addition to the art scene, local snacks and boat-building experiences are available, making the village a tourist draw. Chen Lin has been working as the manager of a cake shop in Linglongwan since April. The shop offers visitors cake making and tasting experiences. “We welcomed lots of people from outside the village during the Labor Day holiday,” Chen says, adding that most tourists showed great enthusiasm toward learning to make cakes the traditional way. About 100 meters away from the bakery, Zhang Laisheng runs a boatbuilding museum, where visitors can learn about local marine history and assemble a model boat of their own. Zhang began learning how to build boats from his father when he was 16. “Dozens of local residents in the neighborhood used to engage in the business before,” Zhang recalls. Locals would use boats to travel to Shanghai, Suzhou and Kunshan in the old days, he adds. The local authority has been striving to transform Shengfeng into a garden town since 2016. A blueberry plantation, a succulent plant garden and a forest of Phoebe zhennan trees have been introduced, says Shengfeng’s Party secretary, Fan Zhixin. Those distinctive industries have helped to draw visitors to the village and have become sources of income for local residents, Fan says. The nurturing of the art and leisure activities in Shengfeng is just one area of positive change that has occurred in Youchegang. The area has been a model for integrated urban and rural development over the years. The Linhu wetland park has become a leading project of its kind, with characteristics typical of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It covers a total area of 212.9 hectares and offers superb ecological and cultural elements. The Gingko Swan Lake, a themed ecological tourism site, has introduced 30,000 ginkgo trees and developed a sightseeing train along the shores of the lake, as well as a deer farm and water town with folk-style homestays. Youchegang has also pushed for a pipeline network upgrade, promoting ecological technology application and implementing technical measures to build a sponge city. (China Daily) | 