Chapter 707: Knight Village
It is not easy to create a "knight village" themed tourism. Due to the lack of funds, he took the lead in taking out his savings and went door to door to mobilize villagers to raise funds; when designing the "Jianghu Martial Arts Competition", he could not find a professional martial arts instructor, so he asked people everywhere and begged for help to invite a retired martial arts master; when preparing for the "Knight's Trace", the production and installation of mountain signboards were difficult, and the villagers worked day and night, and their hands were full of blisters.
After finally seeing some improvement, the surrounding villages followed suit and offered low prices to attract customers, causing a sharp drop in the number of tourists to the Xiake Village. At this time, heavy rains fell, landslides destroyed the newly built tourist trails, the museum preparations were forced to be suspended, agricultural product warehouses were flooded, wheat became moldy and spoiled, and the losses were heavy. The villagers looked at the devastation and some couldn't help crying: "Why are we so unlucky? When will this end?"
However, Qi Tongwei knew that retreat would lead to nowhere. He encouraged everyone: "The hard work and efforts we have endured will not be in vain. As long as we work together, we will definitely make it through!" Everyone cheered up and made new plans. On the one hand, they deeply explored the culture of knights, found cultural relics and evidence, and improved the level of tourism; on the other hand, they improved the varieties of agricultural products, upgraded the processing technology, and expanded the sales channels.
After all the hardships, the village is now completely renewed. Agricultural products are hot-selling in various places due to their unique flavor and martial arts packaging; theme tourism attracts visitors from all over the world, who are intoxicated by the atmosphere of the martial arts world and consume enthusiastically. The villagers' income has increased significantly, and their lives are prosperous. The voices of children reading and the laughter of the elderly are intertwined and echoing.
Looking back on the past, although those difficult pasts are full of regrets and bitterness, they are also stepping stones for growth.
In the past, the barren land produced little, and when disasters occurred, the crops failed, and the villagers sighed and had no means of livelihood. Neighbors quarreled over water sources for irrigation, and when they went to the market to sell grain, they had no choice but to accept the low prices offered by vendors. At the beginning of tourism development, there was a shortage of funds, so the villagers raised funds on their own and carried out construction on their shoulders to save costs.
As the trend of following the trend emerged, customers were snatched away, and the new project was promoted and encountered landslides, rainstorms and floods, resulting in heavy losses. When agricultural product processing was upgraded, scientific research cooperation encountered obstacles, technology was difficult to break through, and packaging improvement was also full of twists and turns. But despite the difficulties, the villagers gritted their teeth and forged ahead with their attachment to their homeland, their belief in cultural heritage, and their persistence in quality.
Today, children laugh in the square, the school reads aloud, and the elderly are at ease. The hardships of the past have turned into medals. Although there are many disappointments, they have made the present prosperous. In the future, "Xia Ke Village" will surely break through the haze and continue to write glory.
The machines at the agricultural product processing factory not far away were roaring, and a bus full of tourists was slowly driving into the village. The prosperous and peaceful scene in front of us formed a sharp contrast with the hardships of the past, making people sigh at the vicissitudes of time.
Many years ago, "Xia Ke Village" was still a poor and backward village, with barren land and simple houses. The villagers lived a life of "facing the loess and back to the sky" every day, relying on a few acres of thin land to barely make a living. At that time, in order to make the crops more productive, everyone often fought for irrigation water, and even fought. Qi Tongwei still remembers that one year there was a severe drought, and the only well in the village was about to dry up. The villagers stayed by the well before dawn, fearing that others would scoop up more water. The faces of those tired and anxious people tortured by life are still engraved in his mind.
Later, the village tried to develop agricultural product planting, thinking that it had ushered in a turnaround, but unexpectedly, the cruelty of the market was far beyond imagination. Due to the lack of planting technology and experience, large areas of crops suffered from pests and diseases in the first year, and the harvest dropped sharply. Looking at the withered wheat seedlings in the field, the villagers wanted to cry but had no tears. Many families could not even afford the seeds for the next year. In order to sell the remaining few agricultural products, Qi Tongwei took a few villagers, pulled a cart, and rushed dozens of miles to the surrounding markets to sell them. Along the way, the rugged mountain road was so bumpy that people's bones were about to fall apart. When they arrived at the market, they found that it was already overcrowded and it was difficult to find a stall. After finally finding a corner to settle down, because there was no loud shouting and attractive packaging, not many things were sold throughout the day, and they were also met with many cold stares.
The turning point came by chance. Qi Tongwei discovered the business opportunity of eco-tourism during an inspection in another place. He thought, the village has mountains and water, and there are ancient legends of knights, why not make use of it? He went back to the village and called the villagers together to share his idea. At first, everyone was skeptical, after all, they had never been involved in this field, but after Qi Tongwei's repeated persuasion, they decided to give it a try.
There were many difficulties in the early stage of preparation. There was no start-up capital, so Qi Tongwei took the lead in taking out his own savings and borrowing money from villagers one by one, scraping together the first sum of money. Without development experience, they went to the surrounding tourist villages that had already developed to learn and explore little by little. When designing the tourism project, in order to create the most distinctive "jianghu competition", Qi Tongwei visited martial arts masters everywhere and invited them to come to the village to guide the villagers in martial arts performances. He was often so busy that he didn't even have time to eat.
The good times did not last long. Just as the tourism project of "Xia Ke Village" began to show results and the number of tourists gradually increased, the surrounding villages became jealous and followed suit. For a time, similar tourism projects flooded the market, and the number of tourists in "Xia Ke Village" dropped sharply. Not only that, a sudden rainstorm triggered a mountain torrent, which destroyed some tourist facilities in the village and flooded farmland, causing heavy losses. The villagers looked at their devastated homes and their morale was low. Some even began to back down, thinking that all their efforts were in vain.
But Qi Tongwei did not give up. He knew that he had to boost morale and lead everyone to stand up again. He visited the villagers one by one, telling them stories of how the village had overcome difficulties and rekindling everyone's hope. At the same time, he dug deep into the village's historical and cultural heritage and discovered the remains of ancient knights hidden in a cave in the back mountain. In order to turn this discovery into a new tourist attraction, he ran around and sought help from professionals. In the process of repairing the cave and building the "Ancient Knight Museum", funds were once again in short supply, and technical problems followed one after another.
In order to solve the funding problem, Qi Tongwei ran around and applied for support funds from government departments, sought bank loans, and negotiated cooperation with enterprises. He was rejected again and again, and started all over again. In terms of technology, he organized villagers to participate in various trainings to learn about cultural relics protection knowledge and tourism facility construction skills, and stayed at the construction site day and night to ensure that every link was correct.