Gaoxigou (°ª¦è·¾)
Gaoxigou, or Gaoxi Gully, is located in Mizhi County just southeast of Yulin. We headed there the next morning in the company of a local expert on the Loess Plateau. This particular expert worked for the local government, and having someone like that with you can be a mixed blessing in China. On the one hand, they can get you access to people and places which may otherwise prove problematic, but at the same time they can be quite restrictive, hindering your every attempt to get the real picture.
Fortunately, as a scientist he was somewhat more open to letting us move freely; part of the reason for this, however, was that our destination was Gaoxigou, the model village for China's ecological makeover in desertified regions.
But just outside the city, there was first the matter of an obligatory meeting with the Mizhi County Secretary (essentially the head of the county). Everyone was too busy for a formal meeting, so he was waiting alongside the road, not far from a construction site where I don't think the bulldozers could be much louder.
He stepped out of his black SUV and proceeded to tell us about the good publicity Gaoxigou is getting, especially after a visit a few months earlier by a central government official who praised the village. Eventually someone suggested that we finish the interview in his car, so we did, where our voices didn't have to compete with the bulldozers.
The meeting proved surprisingly interesting for being with a Chinese official. He compared Gaoxigou to Dazhai, a "different kind of model" in eastern Shanxi. Apparently the latter was very successful at increasing production during the Great Leap "Forward" using terraces. Complete disregard for the environment during this process meant that the area later became an ecological disaster (but is currently supported by tourism centered on its fame). Meanwhile, the residents of Gaoxigou were planting trees and grass to slow the rampant erosion which was destroying their harvests.
Gaoxigou was also the first to construct sediment dams to block sediment flow during heavy rains. Though their first attempts were washed away, they just kept rebuilding them. Fields reclaimed in this way are 5-10 times more productive than those on slopes. Higher ground has only about 1% organic matter content, while that collected by the dams can contain up to 2% organic matter.
Here it is, the government's pet gully-village as it aims to be China's next "Shangri-la" in all its green glory:
Okay, so it may not look quite like what one imagines a paradise to be, but having plants growing on the steep slopes, clearly seen there, is already a feat in such an arid, erosion-prone region. One local official boasted that "for all the sediment that the Loess Plateau contributes to the Yellow River, not one bit comes from Gaoxigou!"
Also note that the land belonging to "Gaoxigou" is more than what you see above, and includes several of the surrounding mountains and the gullies separating them, too. Below is one of the primary cropping gullies where major terrace works are covered with corn, millet, Chinese leeks, and some sunflowers:
A few terraces are reserved for trees specifically to prevent erosion, while many others are lined with fruit trees.
In Gaoxigou, they don't bother to drag millet stalks to a more convenient location for handling, they simply use scissors to cut each and every head off in the field and pack them into bags.
Oh yeah. On arrival, we were met by several local officials, including the Secretary of the township to which Gaoxigou belongs. We ditched them whenever convenient, but at least they offered some new information when interviewed. Probably the most interesting bit is the village's future, as it plans to go the eco-agrotourism route increasingly popular in China.
We did see quite a few successful restoration efforts that day, but exactly what untold portion of that is a result of government support intended to create an example of Gaoxigou remains unclear. (I suppose I could figure out more of the details if I actually read the entire book "Gaoxigou Survey," in which the village head wrote a thank you note before presenting a copy to each of us on departure).