Yaowang Valley: Green Herb, Green Hope

When tourists walk into Yaowang Valley, the first thing greeting them is the overwhelming greenness: phellodendron cypress occupies most of the space, with many kinds of Chinese herbal medicinal materials, like peony, sophora flavescens, polygonatum and platycodon, clustering under it.

The air is filled with the unique fragrance of herbs, as if it could relieve all the tension and anxiety of the soul. Even in the early summer afternoon, the cool climate makes it cozy to wander around in the valley.

Overview of Yaowang Valley, photo by Li Hanqin

This quiet herb valley is located in Anshun City, Guizhou Province of Southwestern region of China. 

Ren Tingzhou, the founder of Yaowang Valley, chose this name from an ancient Chinese legend of Sun Simiao, a doctor who had gained great achievements in medical area and passed away at the age of 141.

In 2008, an unexpected mountain fire burned out the trees in Yaowang Valley. Faced with this desolation, Ren Tingzhou resolutely took the burden of clearing the land and changing the wasteland into the herb valley.

Ren Tingzhou, photo by Du Ke

Nowadays, there are more than 13,000 acres of Chinese medicinal planting bases of phellodendron chinense, more than 500 acres of peonies, 600 acres of peony, 300 acres of sophora flavescens, and many other traditional Chinese herbs in Yaowang Vally.【~】

Compared with the silence in the past, Yaowang Valley is thriving again now.

Meanwhile, Ren also brought new opportunities for local residents to live a better life through inviting them to participate in the construction and operation of the herb valley. Villagers were trained to plant and harvest the herbs for earning some extra income during the slack seasons. Especially for those women in their fifties and sixties who have a lot of free time after finishing their housework, working at Yaowang Valley seemingly opens a new chapter in their lives.

Chen Zhonghui, one of the local village workers, said that she had worked here for more than five years. This job allows Chen to have independent income, thus she could travel freely without adding extra financial burden to her son. “I have already been to Hong Kong and Beijing. The Great Wall is so beautiful that I want to go again,” said Chen while laughing out loud.

Another worker Xian Xiaojuan agreed with Chen. She emphasized that earning more money made her words important in her family. Such change surprised and satisfied Xian a lot.

Local workers, photo by Li Hanqin

In addition to the wealth from the herb business, Yaowang Valley also brought Ren and local people some unexpected gains.

Attracted by Yaowang valley’s fresh air, clean environment and rich Chinese herbal culture atmosphere, increasing number of people from all over the country come to this wonderland for relaxing and recuperating.

Ren Tingzhou certainly did not let go of this chance for industry innovation. Whereby constructing supporting industries, Ren begins to combine pharmaceutical services with tourism. In this way, Yaowang Valley integrates the dissemination of traditional Chinese medicine culture, medical health services and rural leisure tourism together, presenting the tourists with “a cleanse of both body and mind”.

At the same time, Ren also admitted that this was a whole new area for him to learn and discover, indicating that his exploration of possibilities contained in traditional Chinese medicine culture is still in the initial stage.

To this problem, Ren Yunhu, Ren Tingzhou’s son, has his own idea. He said that making good use of Tunpu culture, a special culture only could be seen in Anshun city, could help Yaowang Valley to find a more focused self-image positioning. For instance, it would be feasible to combine Tunpu specialties with traditional Chinese medicine diets and arrange Tunpu cultural visits in the tourism itinerary.

“Traditional Chinese medicine culture is Yaowang Valley’s best feature, but we also need other elements to make Yaowang Valley different from any other TCM attractions,” Ren Yunhu said.

The green herbs in Yaowang Valley are still growing vigorously, bringing more hope for local people’s bright future.

Reporter｜Li Hanqin