Nirvana from the ashes—Shannantou Culture and Art Village

On a summer afternoon, the sun shines happily on the earth, making people sweat. The construction workers in Shannantou Culture and Art Village are still busy at the moment. The unique buildings in the village look particularly vivid, just like the bright red flowers, full of life. The workers use the red bricks in their hands to , building up the future of a generation.

Nirvana

Shannantou Village is located in Taoyuan Village, Yangshan Town, Huishan District, Wuxi City. It is the hometown of peach famous both at home and abroad. The village is at the foot of the southern mountain of "Dayang Mountain", the symbol of Yangshan Town, hence the name Shannantou Village. Originally relying on the blessings of the land in Yangshan, the villagers made a living by growing peaches, and their lives were peaceful. The more than 100 households in the village were lively and lively.

However, with the development of society, young people in the village are no longer willing to work as farmers for generations. Most of them have chosen to go out and seek more development opportunities. Gradually, only a few old people are left in the village to stick to the land.

In 2012, due to the planned development of the town, Shannantou Village, which had long become a hollow village, was facing demolition. A thin piece of A4 paper turned the wheel of history. Most of the villagers signed their names and happily moved into the newly built resettlement communities, getting rid of their identity as farmers. There are only a small number of older people who have lived on this land all their lives and do not want to leave.

More than one hundred households have become more than forty, and most of the houses in the village have been demolished, becoming sparse and lifeless. A few years later, most of the original villagers had decent jobs, and some even became their own bosses and started businesses. Even the poorest ones worked in nearby factories, and their lives were much better than before. Shannantou Village was once about to be wiped off the map and completely submerged in the dust of history.

Rebirth

In 2017, just when Shannantou Village was about to be annihilated, we had to sigh at the magic of nature and the wheel of history turned again. Wuxi City issued the "About Further Promotion of Beautiful Rural Areas" "Implementation Opinions on Construction", with the efforts of town and village leading cadres, Taoyuan Village in Yangshan Town was rated as the first batch of beautiful rural demonstration villages in 2017. As a natural village in Taoyuan Village, Shannantou Village welcomes new opportunities for beautiful rural development.

The town and village governments teamed up with Shanghai New Skyway Design Group to plan and transform Shannantou Village. Shannantou Village was transformed into Shannantou Culture and Art Village, and the foundation was officially laid in 2107. .

After that, there was a lot of construction work. The dilapidated houses were renovated and rebuilt, and unique bungalows were erected on the vacant land that was originally overgrown with weeds. Shannantou Village is like a dead tree blooming with spring, and it is full of life again.

Zhang Gu, secretary of the Taoyuan Village Committee, led the village committee members to actively do ideological work for the villagers, going from house to house, and finally gained the recognition of the heads of households who had not been demolished, and the old houses were Transformed into themed B&Bs or private restaurants, the first group of household heads who invested, represented by villager Yao Shiyi, have now achieved income generation.

Today's Shannantou Cultural and Art Village has a new look. In the center of the village, the "Taomo Cultural and Creative Space", a gathering place for young entrepreneurs, is surrounded by green water. On the opposite bank is the designer's workstation "Ji Jian Sang Zi". You can often see some laughing and playing figures. There are also "Yao Family Courtyard" which represents the unique folk ancestral culture and various special B&Bs in the surrounding area. In the future, there will be art collection exhibition halls such as "Collection Hall" and hot spring hotels such as "Taoyuan Yashu".

With the unremitting efforts of Guo Wuguang, chairman of Shanghai New Skyway Design Group and known as the "Country Magician", and his team, they have successfully integrated traditional culture and modern life and explored A new model for rural industry.

After seeing the successful cases of a few bold villagers earlier, more villagers felt relieved and actively participated in the trend of renovating old houses. As the builder, Guo Wuguang and the Taoyuan Village Committee also gave the villagers more choices.

Villagers can simply rent out their houses and get rent, they can also operate them themselves or cooperate with foreign B&B hosts to get profits, or they can entrust them to a platform company for the whole village to manage and operate them uniformly and get a share.

The future is promising

But flowers never bloom. In order to ensure the sustainable development of the village, Shannantou Culture and Art Village uses the "Taomo Cultural and Creative Space" as the starting point to gather a large number of creative people. Young people, cultural scholars, art workers, local craftsmen, rural designers and other rural revitalization talents have formed a "Maker Alliance" to provide resources and platforms for these people with unique skills or amazing ideas through policy support such as rent exemption. It gives them the opportunity to realize their ambitions, and at the same time, through the introduction of talents, the entire Shannantou Culture and Art Village continues to flourish.

Those who have gone out have come back with more people, and streams of fresh blood are constantly being injected. Sunshine always comes after the storm, and Shannantou Village has finally achieved transformation after going through many hardships, just like the divine bird Phoenix reborn in the fire. Now the villagers firmly believe that the Shannantou Culture and Art Village, which has been nirvana from the ashes, will usher in a glorious situation where hundreds of birds are paying homage to the phoenix.