“Place of Happiness” – Simola Village of Wa Caste in Yunnan Province

There is a Wa ethnic village named Simola in Thangchong city of Yunnan province, southwest China. “Simola” means “place of happiness” in the language of the Wa caste. But before that it was suffering from poverty for a long time. In 2010, CPC member Chao Jiajing became the head of the village. He led the villagers step by step to transform the poor and backward Simola into a famous rural tourist destination.
“Let the villagers lead a happy and prosperous life, and is worthy of the name ‘Simola’.” Chao Jiaqing thought so in his heart. He made inspection visits to big cities and prosperous villages with village staff and villagers, so as to learn their experiences of becoming prosperous.
Initially, Chao Jiajing led the villagers to improve village roads, then he established free training and tuition classes in village cooking, tea craft, electrician, planting and animal husbandry, homestay, rural tourism, etc., so that the village Residents can master modern service skills. At the same time, he encouraged migrant workers to return to their hometowns to start businesses, promote minority ethnic specific tourism, and encourage college students to return to villages, so as to lead the villagers by using new knowledge and new ideas. General prosperity can be achieved.
Adding to the characteristics of the local geographical location and climatic conditions, Chao Jiaqing leads the villagers to plant Chinese herbs. He signed contracts with pharmaceutical and food companies. In this way, both tourism and agriculture benefit from the development. In the year 2020, the entire village was brought out of poverty.
(Credits- China Media Group, Beijing)