Gucheng, a small village 370 kilometers away from Wuhan, was a poverty –stricken rural village 10 years ago. After years of eco-village reconstruction, the village now is a national eco-village demonstration base which attracts tourists home and abroad.

On April 25, 2018, Gucheng was officially listed as the National Green Ecological Village Demonstration Base. Co-presided by Prof. Wang Xiaoming of School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics and Prof. Hua Hong of School of Environmental Science and Engineering, the project lasted for about four years. Since 2008, the team have conducted more than 80 investigations in Yanhe Village. The research covered the topics as the community planning and construction, the improvement of living environment, the upgrade of residential housing and so on.

                  a birdview of the village

Now the then poverty-stricken village has changed dramatically:

In the past ten years, Yanhe village has been committed to developing ecological economy by planting pollution-free tea and developing tourism in mountain villages. Statistics show that in 2017, the collective economy of Yanhe Village increased by 20% year-on-year, and the per capita net income of farmers reached 22,000 yuan;

Meanwhile, the village cleaned the two-kilometer-long river bank and built a green ecological corridor for farmers, popularized the garbage classification and set up a sewage treatment facility;

Nowadays some of the local villagers lived in energy-saving houses. In the past 10 years, visitors from home and abroad have increased year by year. Today's Yanhe has become a green bank where tea grows into ridges, trees grow in rows, and fragrances grow in fruit. Green economy has become a pillar industry for farmers in the whole village to shake off poverty and become rich.

Since the beginning of this project, Professor Wang Xiaoming and Professor Hua’s team have published 16 papers in core journals at home and abroad, including 4 papers on SCI and SSCI, and will publish 1 monograph in both Chinese and English. Meanwhile, 2 doctoral candidates and 14 master candidates finished their dissertations from this program. Yanhe Village has also won national honors such as “China Beautiful Livable Model Village” granted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, “China's Most Beautiful Leisure Village” awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture, and “China Rural Tourism Model Village” awarded by the National Tourism Administration.

The completion of the National Green Ecological Village Demonstration Base in Yanhe Village provides a realistic model for the promotion of the country's rural regeneration strategy in the new era. It is of great significance to promote the coordinated and sustainable development of the economic, social and ecological environment in the villages and towns, and also marks our school in the Green Ecological Village construction Field has ranked the leading position in the country.